DPP Should Apologize on Behalf of Hsu Chia-ching

 DPP Should Apologize on Behalf of Hsu Chia-ching

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

August 30, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

For the 60th anniversary of the August 23^rd Artillery Duel, none of the high echelons of the Presidential Palace, the Cabinet, or the DPP went to Kinmen to attend the commemorative activities; Hsu Chia-ching, deputy secretary-general of the DPP, argued, “Wasn’t August 23 a civil war between the KMT and the CCP?” “If those who fought in the war sacrificed the lives of Taiwanese in exchange for the lives of the KMT, has this kind of commemoration any significance?"

Hsu Chia-ching’s remarks fundamentally could not hold water. The officers and men who took part in the 8/23 Artillery Duel which defended Taiwan included those from other provinces and Taiwanese; they fought on the front lines for their loved ones and their homeland, definitely not only for the KMT. The vicious narrative of Hsu Chia-ching that betrayed history, betrayed the armed forces, and betrayed the people of Kinmen negated and humiliated not the KMT but the officers and men of the armed forces who defended Taiwan on the front lines with their lives and the people of Kinmen who suffered the barrage of nearly 500,000 artillery shells with their homeland.

Just imagine, if there had been no valiant fighting of the heroes in the August 23^rd Artillery Duel, the CCP would have successfully occupied Kinmen, then Matsu’s situation would also have been shaky, and our side would have completely lost the strategic depth of the Taiwan Strait. The hotspots of cross-Strait confrontation would have been changed from Kinmen and Matsu to Taiwan and Penghu. If Taiwan proper had been faced with direct military threatens, may we ask how the people would have led a peaceful life? And how the economy would have developed?

Today every person who lives on Taiwan proper enjoys the protective shield left behind by the August 23^rd Artillery Duel. This is an ironclad fact, not allowing Hsu Chia-ching, for the self-interest of a single political party, to subvert black and white, Hsu Chia-ching’s rhetoric of narrow-mindedness and bigotry is despicable; it not only twisted history but also undermined the image of the DPP. President Tsai Ing-wen, who doubles as DPP chairperson, must sternly repudiate her statements in no uncertain terms.

Hsu Chia-ching is the DPP’s deputy secretary-general; her public statements are not "personal remarks" but represent the party's position. If the DPP does not approve of Hsu Chia-ching’s remarks, it must, from President Tsai Ing-wen on down, stand up and sternly repudiate her rhetoric, and extend apologies for the improper remarks of its deputy secretary-general. This would then be the correct approach for President Tsai to appeal for solidarity of Taiwan.

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