By Kayla Tracy
A Los Alamitos High student recently started a group to advocate for the Independence of Taiwan. The project has been added to participate in the “Global Day of Action” against Chinese threats against regions such as Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, Southern Mongolia, and East Turkestan. In May, Elizabeth Wu, a Taiwanese American senior at Los Alamitos High School, started the Taiwanese Independence Project to educate the community about Taiwanese independence.
In 1949, the Kuomintang, a Chinese Nationalist Party, and Chiang Kai-Shek, a Chinese Nationalist politician, fled to Taiwan during Mao Zedong and the Communist People’s Liberation Army’s development in China. Today, Taiwan has received threats of invasion from China for several decades. Kuomintang still holds rule in Taiwan and agrees with the “One China Policy,” which indicates that China has governance over Taiwan.
However, the Democratic Progressive Party argues that Taiwan is a fully independent country and should solely be under the name “Taiwan” and not its other name, “Republic of China.”
The Taiwanese Independence Project works with various Hong Kong protestors and “Dalu,” a journalist and radio show host who helped expose the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989.
“We are working with several other groups such as Students For A Free Tibet, the Uyghur Human Rights Project, and the Hong Kong International Alliance,” Wu said.
The Taiwanese Independence Project’s planning and work is completed through online meetings with other groups or individually. The project was planned to outreach mainly online, so there have not been major adjustments made since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Recently, Elizabeth Wu planned a protest called “Resist China Now” with other groups including For A Free Tibet, World Uyghur Congress, and Taiwan Association for Human Rights that was held October 1 in Los Angeles. Wu intends to organize group rallies at Chinese embassies as a part of the “Fridays for Freedom” campaign and other in-person events as soon as the spread of COVID-19 fully slows.
For more information go to: resistchina.org or @taiwanindependenceproject on Instagram.
Kayla Tracy is a sophomore at Los Alamitos High School