TODAY HONG KONG, TOMORROW TAIWAN?

Oct 14th 5pm local time: Honk Kong Protesters are sitting on Queensway Road / Photo credit: Ed Flanagan

By Jeremy C.F. Lin

Ever since riot police ruthlessly attacked unarmed demonstrators in Hong Kong, pointing at them with rifles, spraying chemicals in their faces, smashing their limbs with batons and turning downtown into a battlefield, I have been living with this constant fear — my home country could one day experience something similar, if not worse.

I am from Taiwan, a country that is not recognized as a country by the international community. A country that the Chinese government has been eyeing for decades, threatening one day that “we” shall be united. A country that doesn’t have a definite identity. Just floating in limbo, drifting in the Pacific.

After the end of World War II, our government fled to Taiwan while China was taken over by the Chinese Communist Party. In 1971, China replaced our seat in the United Nations, officially isolating Taiwan from the world.

In the past few decades, we have been knocking on the door of the international community only to find no one on the other side . Yet we still try to engage the world, even sometimes compromising our national dignity. We participate in the Olympics, World Trade Organization, and World Health Organization with the name of “Chinese Taipei.” The World Bank includes us as the economy of Taiwan, under China. We still don’t have a seat in the United Nations Assembly. We still don’t have official embassies in most countries.

I can’t recall how many times I have been mistaken for Chinese. Yes, I am ethnically Chinese. But I have never shared the same identity as the Chinese people in China, because I grew up with democracy and the freedom of press. I grew up in a country that has its own army, currency, judicial system, constitution, president, territory, passport, and foreign policy.

But what does it really mean to not be recognized as a country? It means researchers who publish their papers in scientific journals can’t cite the name “Taiwan.” It means Taiwanese students often are not eligible to apply for scholarships when they study overseas, because Taiwan is not listed as a country. It means if we ever experience an epidemic or outbreak, we might not receive much international support.

It means if China one day decides to fire up its missiles — around 1600 in total — to Taiwan, we will be hopeless and our democracy and freedom of the press will be ripped away from us.

What is happening in Hong Kong exemplifies China’s insatiable thirst for international political clout. And China is willing to renege on promises of “one country, two systems” — something that Beijing has promised Hong Kong and been actively selling to us. This is genuinely scary.

Back home, words have been spreading around about “Today Hong Kong, tomorrow Taiwan.” The possibility of reunification has become more pronounced. However, why would we ever want to embrace a new government when we don’t share the same identity? When people aren't allowed to vote or express their opinions in a way that the government has to respect. When the government is unable to keep its promises and is run by a tiny minority of oligarchs who pay little attention to what the people really want.

More fundamentally, Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to the government in Taiwan, not the government on the mainland.