Shih Ming Te to the U.S. Congress: “I Bring Only Confidence”

“Mr. Chairman:

“A few days ago, friends told me that your committee would be inviting me to today’s hearing. I asked myself: if I came, what would it mean for my country, and for the ideals and beliefs to which I have given my life? I hesitated.

“As word spread, friends joined, one after another, in urging me on.

“One suggested: ‘You can go there and testify that the government of Taiwan is still violating human rights — that people are still behind bars for what they say and what they think; that those imprisoned as political prisoners over the past forty years have yet to regain their civil rights and their right to work; that many Taiwanese abroad, and international human rights workers, are still barred from returning to Formosa, the beautiful island of their dreams; that those in power are planning to arrest Taiwan’s environmental, labor, and farmers’ movement activists under the anti-hoodlum laws; that families of soldiers who died in military service are often still not told the true cause of death; that any party or individual who dares to state the plain, commonsense truth that the sovereignty of the Republic of China no longer extends to mainland China, Outer Mongolia, or Tibet still faces dissolution or arrest….’

“True, these are all facts in Taiwan. But are they unknown to the U.S. government and the U.S. Congress? Are they worth my coming here in person to make these charges?

“Another urged me: ‘As someone held in such affection by the people of Taiwan, you must tell the U.S. Congress that Taiwan is not part of the People’s Republic of China, and that the people of Taiwan have the right to independence and self-determination.’

“I smiled: ‘The U.S. government and the U.S. Congress have long needed no reminder from me on that point.’

“A number of people told me: ‘You should testify before the U.S. Congress and expose the National Affairs Conference for the sham it is. The Kuomintang staged the National Affairs Conference only to deflect the Taiwanese people’s strong demands for constitutional reform, a full re-election of the national legislature, and direct presidential elections, and the great call for democracy raised by the March student movement. Now the conference is over, and the hope of reform has receded further still.’

“I do not believe the U.S. government and the U.S. Congress are so unfamiliar with Taiwan’s politics as not to know that Taiwan still has members of parliament who have not faced re-election in forty years — or that a fierce power struggle is under way at the top of the Kuomintang, with Taiwan’s democratization and Taiwan’s security offered up as the sacrifice.

“Some even telephoned me from overseas to implore me to tell the U.S. Congress: ‘The Chinese imperialists keep threatening to conquer Taiwan by force if they must, while inside Taiwan a group of power-seekers bent on holding on to their privileged positions forever are colluding with the Beijing government, openly or in secret, in a plot to bury the rights and interests of the people of Taiwan….’

“When I was only a boy of eight, I was made to chant along with Chiang Kai-shek’s government: ‘One year to prepare, two years to counterattack, three years to mop up, five years to victory.’ And for forty years I have heard the Beijing government bluster about ‘liberating Taiwan’ and ‘washing Taiwan in blood.’ Beijing’s threat to take Taiwan by force has served only to give the Kuomintang regime an excuse to delay democratization, and to raise the standing of those politicians who refuse to identify with Taiwan.

“The day before yesterday, someone lectured me in tones of stern righteousness: ‘All of Taiwan’s present ills — its diplomatic isolation, its polluted environment, its bankrupt farmers, its politicians without principle, its rampant profit-first mentality — are the work of the American imperialists. In recent years the U.S. government has even let, or quietly directed, the government of Taiwan to support the white government of South Africa and to use the wealth of the Taiwanese people to prop up certain dictatorships in Central and South America, making Taiwan an accomplice of imperialism. Why don’t you go and denounce them before the U.S. Congress?’

“The United States operates widely and deeply across most of the world to protect its economic interests, its political influence, and its dominance. Is there still any need for me to accuse or criticize it?

“Last night, I decided to come, and rode a not-so-clean train from New York to get here.

“I have not come here to ask the United States to rescue us, the people of Taiwan, or to protect our basic human rights.

“I have not come here to attack our government in Taiwan.

“Still less have I come here to plead with the People’s Republic of China to respect the right of us Taiwanese to self-determination.

“I have come here, and in my luggage I have brought only one message:

“We, the sons and daughters of Taiwan of this generation, have absolute confidence. We will not kowtow to the strong. We will not yield to any oppressor. We firmly believe that, relying on the strength, wisdom, and ability of the people of Taiwan themselves, we will resolve every problem and challenge before us.

“We will sweep away every injustice that violates human rights, democracy, and fairness, and build a great and just society in Taiwan.

“We will preserve our nation’s independence and the integrity of its sovereignty.

“We will defeat any foreign aggressor, and anyone who schemes to sell out Taiwan.

“Through the long and bitter twenty-five years of my imprisonment, what allowed me to bear every hardship and resist every temptation was a confidence that can never be crushed!

“The new generation of Taiwanese has this confidence too!

“Finally, permit me to say, with regret: although I have come to this hearing today, as a Taiwanese I do not believe it is fitting, or right, for me to be questioned or examined by the members of another nation’s legislature in that legislature. I will gladly answer any question in other, private settings. This is a matter of principle, and I ask for your understanding.

“May the friendship between the peoples of our two nations endure forever.

“May the wisdom and love of the Creator nourish the earth.

“Peace be with you all.

“Shih Ming Te

“October 11, 1990, Washington, D.C.”