Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
From: liuyh@vis.toronto.edu (Yuanhui Liu)
Subject: Re: The purpose of a country. (Was: F-16's fear?)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Distribution: na
Date: 9 Sep 92 20:02:17 GMT

In article <ROTEN.92Sep9152050@CUBA.gsfc.nasa.gov> roten@CUBA.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles Roten) writes:
>In article <1992Sep8.232114.10501@cs.yale.edu> yang-allan@CS.YALE.EDU 
>(J. Allan Yang) writes:
>
>>After seeing the continuing bickering over the history and
>>independence of Taiwan that digressed from the thread of the recent
>>F-16 sale to Taiwan, I would like to ask you to ponder upon what is
>>the purpose of a country for a short while. It will shed some lights
>>on why Taiwan (or Tibet, or Inner Mongolia) should or should not
>>stay as part of China.
>
>>Lincoln said it well: a country should be for the people, by the
>>people, and of the people. Ideally, a country should serve to
>>protect and promote the wellbeing of her people and thereby gain the
>>support of her people and justify her own existence. Otherwise, a
>>country has no adhesive to stay intact without resorting to
>>oppressive measures. If people have choice, most will join the
>>country that gives them the greatest prosperity and security. That's
>>why almost all Chinese and, until recently, many Taiwanese in US
>>seek for PR or US citizenship. As you may have observed, more and
>>more Taiwanese in the US are going back to Taiwan because now they
>>feel they have better opportunities in Taiwan.
>
>>If you are against the forced return of Chinese in the US back to
>>China against their will, then you should understand how the
>>Taiwanese feel about a forced unification. Taiwan strives for
>>up-to-date defensive weaponry as a measure against the dire
>>possibility. It's just like many Chinese students in the US actively
>>seek congressional support for their indefinite stay in the US.
>
>>There will no problem for Taiwan to unite with China someday when
>>Chinese in the US are as willing as the Taiwanese to go back to
>>their homeland. After all, we are of the same race and speak the
>>same language. No Taiwanese is going to fight against uniting with a
>>truly democratic China that takes good care of her own people.
>
>>Regards.
>
>>- Allan
>
>                !!!!! THERE IS A GOD !!!!!  
>
>:-)  
>
>This is the first post I have seen on the F-16 issue which makes sense 
>to me.  
>
>Given a _democratic_ China, I suspect the Taiwanese will STAMPEDE towards 
>re-unification with the mainland.  It will be impossible to hold them 
>back.  
>
>But the way things are now .. well, who likes to look down the muzzle 
>of a tank's main gun, just for speaking one's mind about the government ???  
>
>Surely, not the folks on Taiwan.  
>
>--
>Charles Roten | Hughes-STX, Incorporated | 
>  roten@cuba.gsfc.nasa.gov               | 'Use the Source, Luke!'
>  7601 Ora-Glen Dr., Greenbelt, MD 20706 | 
>  301-513-7805 (w),  301-317-0872 (h)    |            Obi-Wan Stallman

I basically agreed with the post.  As I recall, my original post
did not discuss why who should/whouldn't unite with who issue.  It
was only response to another post's suggestion that "Taiwanese"  
fought the Japanese alone in 1895, well it's not true.  Lots of 
people fought the Japanese in Taiwan, not only those who happen
to be born on the island and consider themselves a native, don't
alter the history and left out some facts to support one's political
views of present time -- that's all I was/am saying.