From: klg0582@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ken-Huang Lin)
Subject: Re: Two Chinas and Two Koreas
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 03:20:16 GMT

b0k2481@venus.tamu.edu (KIM, BYUNGSEON) writes:

>I really feel sympathy on Taiwanese people about recent diplomatic breakdown
>with S. Korea.  South Korean Government did similar before when rich Arab
>countries (they were valuable clients to S. Korea in trade and construction)
>asked it to withdraw relationship with Israel.  I do not even know whether 
>Israeli embassy exists in S. Korea nowadays.  However, that is the reality
>in the world we are living now (at least it does not involve any violence).  
>Many other countries have done the same thing.
>Long time ago, I was also very disappointed when U.N. kicked Taiwan out
>for China.  Actually there are so many such examples.

>However, I want to know very fundamental things rather than
>discussing childish matters (Korean embassy in Taiwan bla, bla...).

> - Does Taiwan still claim her legitimacy in mainland?

>   I once knew a Taiwanese several years ago.  He always distinguished
>   his heritage from the Chinese.  He used to express his enviousness
>   about students' movement in S. Korea (though it frequently involved
>   violence), because he was against minor refugee mainlanders'
>   government which ruled Formosa's majority Taiwanese with more than
>   30-year lasted martial law and unbalanced seats in the Congress due
>   to pre-occupied seats by mainlanders.

>   Since Nixon visited China, reunification of Germany, and Collapse
>   Communist Russia, ideology becomes less important than even the 
>   difference of religion.  Consequently, if you believe (1) PROC
>   holds the legitimacy in mainland China and, (2) you can get more
>   mutual benefit from PROC, the selection is quite certain.

> - Don't Taiwanese believe (practically) re-unification of China,
>   sometime in the future, dominated by PROC?
>   If Taiwan goverment still claims legitimacy, why doesn't it claim
>   U.K. to return Hong Kong to Taiwan rather than China? 

>In Korea, situation is a little different.  We want re-unification of
>Korea without any one-side's dominance (even though some S. Koreans
>expect their dominace due to s. Korea's economic superiority).  We
>know Korea is not Germany. S. Korea has to help N. Korea open its
>gate to the world rather than isolating itself.  I was sad when our
>previous dictators (both J.H.Park and Kim Il Sung) exploited isolation
>to maintain their reign.  I believe, in the near future, the heritage
>of Goguryo will achieve the exclusion of dictatorship from the North.

>B. Sean Kim.....................


  It was well known that S. Korea had to establish diplomatic relation
with China for her own interest.  So, I have no blame for S. Korea's
switching the recognization.  However, it is fair to call the
S. Korean government cheating.  Even when Taipei made it public that
the normalization between S. Korea and China was imminent, S. Korea
still denied it.  S. Korean President was joking when he said "while
making new friend S. Korea won't forget old friend".  S. Korea didn't
notify Taipei with enough time for Taiwan to prepare.  She even
blocked Taiwan's intention to sell the embassy like what Taiwan did
with the embassy in USA more than 10 years ago.

  Being an independent country, S. Korea yielded to China too much,
making herself look like a dependency of China.  In my understanding
of Chinese culture, China would treat a dependency with charity but no
respect.  Feel sorry for Korean people.

Ken-Huang Lin
khlin@uiwpls.ece.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan