Crossposted from Cfgaussian

Arnaud Betrand’s comments:

That’s easily the most insanely provocative statement that Taiwan’s Lai Ching-Te has ever made, and that’s a very high bar.

In a speech on Saturday he literally said that Imperial Japan’s colonial rule over Taiwan was better than that of the KMT (Chiang Kai-shek’s party that built modern Taiwan and his main opposition party today).

His exact words: “Japan colonized Taiwan in order to advance the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Nationalist government came to Taiwan just the same - merely [treating it] as a springboard for retaking the mainland. And especially after the KMT government arrived in Taiwan, the way it treated the Taiwanese people was even worse than colonial-ruled Taiwan - worse than colonial Japan’s treatment of Taiwan.”

There’s so much wrong with this, I’m not even sure where to start.

First of all, the expression “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” to frame Japanese imperialism during WW2 is anything but neutral: it’s Imperial Japan’s own propaganda term for their imperial project of domination of Asia. An empire, incidentally, that the WW2 allies - including his U.S. patrons - lost millions of soldiers defeating.

Used unironically as he does, it’s like describing Nazi Germany’s occupation of Europe as an effort to build a “Prosperous New European Order”

Secondly, the man is literally - officially - the President of the Republic of China, the very state that Sun Yat-sen and the KMT founded. He draws his constitutional authority from the constitution they wrote, and won his presidency through the voting system they established - and then calls them worse than Imperial Japan.

Heck this very speech was given at an event celebrating 30 years of direct presidential elections in Taiwan - which the KMT itself introduced. So he used the anniversary of a KMT achievement to argue that the KMT was worse than a colonial empire that never gave Taiwanese a single vote

Lastly, the framing of the existence of a “Taiwanese people” that was subsequently colonized by both Japan and the KMT is historically and demographically absurd. Over 95% of Taiwan’s population is Han Chinese, descended from mainland migrants - and that includes Lai’s own family (!), which came from Pinghe county in Fujian province.

So framing things this way is basically saying that Japanese colonial rule over the Chinese people of Taiwan was preferable to governance by other Chinese people, including his own! You could hardly do more to insult your own ancestors, and yourself.

I mean, think about the absurd twisting of history that’s going on here, the degree of madness in the current Taiwanese separatist narrative.

Lai doesn’t hold office as the president of some independent “Taiwanese” republic: he is the president of the Republic of China - the state that took Taiwan back from Japan. His office exists because that liberation happened. As the President he is, by definition, its inheritor.

And he’s arguing it was a mistake because, otherwise, his entire narrative falls apart. If the KMT’s arrival was a liberation - which it legally, historically, and constitutionally was - then there is no “colonized Taiwanese people,” no separatist grievance, and no justification for independence.

So we arrive at the absurd situation where the president of the Republic of China has to stand at a podium and argue that the Republic of China should never have retaken Taiwan.

Beyond shameful

Angelica Oung gives an impression of how this was received in Taiwan:

https://xcancel.com/AngelicaOung/status/2033374896273895871

BTW…people in Taiwan are NOT OK with this. I searched “Lai Ching-te” on Threads this morning and here are the top results, all related to these horrible comments:

“How do we have such a disgusting president? Lai Ching-te is the tragedy of the Taiwanese. How can the words ‘east-asia co-prosperity sphere’ leave his mouth?”

“I voted Tsai Ing-wen…hearing Lai describe Japanese colonialism as co-prosperity…I’m pretty disappointed.”

“Who is Lai Ching-te’s history teacher?”

“I don’t want to defend the KMT white terror, but the Japanese colonial regime came with armed repression and exploitation. The Yunlin massacre and the 228 massacre should be seen as equal.”,

“After seeing Lai’s talk, I refuse to vote DPP for life.”

“Taiwan is hopeless…when the president uses his ideology and misbegotten view of history to create polarization…no wonder Taiwan is full of agitation and conflict.”

“I want to throw up”

“As a leader of our country, yet he sucks up to those who colonized us. This isn’t freedom of speech but a betrayal to the Taiwanese!”

You can tell from the comments that they are not all from pro-KMT voices but betrayed DPP followers as well