Lai's 'history lessons' risible nonsense

If Lai Ching-te, head of the Democratic Progressive Party authorities of Taiwan, really cares about the well-being of the 23 million residents on the Chinese island, he would not have relentlessly tried to push the envelope in seeking "Taiwan independence".

The diehard secessionist openly peddled false theories on the Chinese island's history in a bid to try and prove its separation from its motherland is a "historical" fact.

Giving the first of 10 speeches in a series called "uniting the country", Lai deliberately altered Taiwan's history, denying the fact that Taiwan has been an integral part of China since ancient times and rejecting the notion that Taiwan's indigenous peoples migrated directly or indirectly from the mainland. He disregards the historical fact that successive Chinese governments have administered Taiwan.

Lai drew on Taiwan's history, including the millennia-long connection of its indigenous people to other Austronesians, such as native Hawaiians, to show what he said was Taiwan's separate and distinct development from the Chinese mainland.

That Lai singled out Hawaii to highlight Taiwan's status as a member of the Austronesian family due to their indigenous peoples' millennia-long connection is simply absurd and ridiculous.

Even the indigenous people of Taiwan had much closer connections with the mainland than Hawaii. Lai should be reminded that if his preposterous argument stands, the whole of world history would have to be rewritten.

The DPP leader's mentioning of Hawaii, the 50th state of the United States, was also to try and close the distance between his authorities and Washington, the major patron of the DPP's secessionist cause.

But the US didn't exist for the vast majority of the millennia-long history of connection Lai bragged about. And it was not until 1959 that Hawaii became part of the US. According to his "indigenous people determinism", the US today should be regarded as an Asian country.

Lai also mentioned Taiwan residents' record of opposing the invasion by Japan and its 1895-1945 colonial rule. But he stopped short of mentioning the island's fight against earlier Dutch invaders and colonialists.

All these records are an integral part of the Chinese history and the island residents' fights against foreign invasion were invariably supported by the central government, and the fights just proved how determined the island's residents were to make sacrifices to protect their homes from foreign invaders and colonialists.

That courage and determination to safeguard the integrity and dignity of the motherland have been shared by Chinese people throughout history.

No matter how long the island was under Japan's colonial rule, no matter how secessionist-minded politicians such as Lai, who are actually foreign forces' puppets, try and distort history to suit their narrow ends, Taiwan has been and will continue to be an indisputable part of Chinese territory.

The DPP, which was founded in 1986, 41 years after the Chinese people defeated the Japanese invaders, has not been part of the Taiwan residents' fight against the Japanese at all. By distorting history, Lai is doing nothing but attempting to help the DPP redefine history to serve its "pro-independence" cause.

Unlike the indigenous people he praised, the DPP is just doing the opposite to offer the island to foreign forces as a geopolitical pawn in the latter's overall strategy to contain the island's motherland.

As Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said in statement, Lai's Sunday speech "was a 'Taiwan independence' declaration that blatantly incited cross-Strait confrontation, and a hodgepodge of 'Taiwan independence' fallacies and heresies full of errors and omissions".

The fallacies fabricated by Lai in contravention of history, reality and jurisprudence, including those he will voice in the following nine speeches of his de facto "separating the country" circus shows, are destined to be swept into the rubbish heap of history.