 Great. Well, welcome everyone and thank you for joining for a China's not our enemy webinar. This is co-hosted and organized by Massachusetts Peace Action and Code Pink. I'm Madison Tang with the Code Pink China is not our enemy campaign. And we're really excited today about tensions over Taiwan preventing nuclear war this webinar with Carl's off. And you are welcome to introduce yourself in the chat and where you're calling from, if you'd like to. This is also being live streamed on mass peace actions YouTube, and will be posted later. Also on code pinks YouTube so it'll be viewable and shareable later. All right, so we will get started and I just want to give a couple. Thank yous to folks at mass peace action, Cole Harrison and Marma and Ration Lou, who are helping us out to make this event possible. I also want to thank Jodi Evans at code pink for founding the China's not our enemy campaign. And I want to thank co sponsors that we have for this event. Thank you so much to chow collective. Please check out their research and their work veterans for peace East Bay and veterans for peace the China working group. We've been great partners to us in our coalition, working to end and dismantle us aggression towards China and promote peace between the nations. Please check out those links in the chat for more from our co sponsors and more ways to promote peace with China. So, I'm just going to go right into it and I think we will have more opportunity to speak more about what we're doing with these campaigns to mobilize folks in the movement to create a peaceful, peaceful movement from the west to the east. We'll be sharing some actions, including voting, get asking your senators to vote no on the NDA, the Pentagon budget which is record high. There's talks to increase it to 780 billion this year. So we will also have an action that will be shared related to this topic of Taiwan, calling for representative Elaine Luria in Virginia to stop advocating for an expansion of President Biden's war powers over China and Taiwan. She recently wrote an op ed calling for the Taiwan invasion prevention act which would expand Biden's authority to go to war without congressional approval. So let's get into some of the context around that very issue. I'm very excited to announce and introduce Carl, who's a Chinese American independent political analyst analyst. Excuse me and he is the creator and host of the podcast called silk and steel about China, the Silk Road, history, culture and geopolitics. You can find Carl and silk and steel podcast on Twitter, YouTube and Patreon, and we'll be linking to his podcast, so can steals recent series on the history of Taiwan it's a very long and comprehensive series so if you don't feel like we got deep enough into that tonight. It's a, it's a great place to go after this to seek more information. So you can find out what your views are after having all the facts in front of you. That series is also with Sean you and just want to acknowledge that Sean you as Taiwanese so you can get into some questions from someone who has, you know, deep ties to the region of Taiwan. So thank you so much for being here today Carl with code pink and mass peace action, and Carl's going to present for a little bit and then afterwards, we will go into some other questions so if you have a specific question for Carl. I may we may have time for it I'm going to be asking questions first and we'll see if we have time. Feel free to ask those though and engage in the chat. Thanks Carl. Thank you Madison and thank you for the organizer of coping for inviting me to speak. I can hear my screen now I did prepare a slide for this. If every can everybody see my screen. So this is, I'm going to first going to present a brief history of Taiwan, just to provide the historical context. Hopefully, with more neurons than the John Oliver piece. I have 60 slides so I will go very quickly. Location of Taiwan Taiwan is located about a mile, 100 mile off the coast of mainland China, southwest of Okinawa north of the Philippines. Taiwan has been inhabited since Paleolithic age and around 5000 years ago, Australian nation farmers from mainland China start to arrive. And this is a possible migration route from where foxtail millet and rice cultivation happening first happening mainland China these farmers made their way down the coast and they made it to Taiwan about 5000 years ago. And around Taiwan, the Australian nation farmers brought their language and culture and spread it all throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, as far as Polynesia Hawaii, Eastern Island New Zealand and as far as Madagascar off the coast of Africa. During historical records during the Three Kingdoms period of China, the Wu Kingdom send the expedition to a large island called Yizhou. Then early 7th century, the Sui Dynasty send the expedition to Liuchu Island. Then in 1292, the Yuan Dynasty send the expedition to Liuchu Island. So traditional interpretation is that Yizhou, Liuchu all refer to Taiwan, although there are some disagree and think we actually refer to Okinawa. In the 9th century, the Han Chinese fishermen start to settle in Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait very close to Taiwan. And then in 18, in 1281, after the failed Mongol invasion of Japan, the Kublai Khan had his fleet setting up shop and on the Penghu Island and officially set up administration. So from Yuan Dynasty, Penghu Island, this is a location of Penghu Islands, you can see it's very close to Taiwan already. From Yuan Dynasty, Penghu Islands was officially listed as part of China. Then in 1620s in the late Ming Dynasty, the Europeans start to show up. The Dutch wanted to forcibly open China for trade. So they started by occupying the Penghu archipelago, but the means send the fleet to kick out the Dutch. So the Dutch was forced to flee to Taiwan and set up shop there. Just another note that start from, at least from Yuan Dynasty, Han Chinese fishermen start to go cross to Taiwan to fish around the waters around Taiwan. The Chinese traders start to trade with the indigenous people on Taiwan and the Han Chinese pirates start setting up their base on the Taiwan Island because it's outside the imperial control. When the Dutch came to Taiwan to set up their fort at Fort Zelendia and from there they start to subject indigenous people on Taiwan. And the Spanish didn't want to be left behind so they set up their own colony in the northern Taiwan around the present day Taipei area. But after 20 years, the Dutch wage war against the Spanish kicked them out and by that time by 1640s, the Spanish Dutch control almost all the coastal areas of Taiwan. But of course that left the vast interior of Taiwan is still under the indigenous control. This is a painting of the Dutch for Zelendia on Taiwan. It's built on a sandbar called Taiwan and Taiwan is from the indigenous name given to the sandbar. Eventually the name Taiwan will expand to include the whole island. So Taiwan is actually an indigenous name as opposed to Formosa because Formosa was a Portuguese name given to the island in the 16th century. When the Dutch arrived, they set out to expand their colony because it was too expensive to bring European colonists to Taiwan. They settled on bringing mass migration of Han Chinese migrant farmer into Taiwan. This is an 18th century painting of a sugar plantation on Taiwan. In fact, the Dutch famously said Taiwan is a land of milk and honey and the Chinese are the worker bees. In fact, the Dutch exploitation of these Chinese migrant labor was so hard. She sparked several rebellions by the Chinese migrants on the island and the Dutch brutally put them down with multiple massacres until this man showed up. And this is Koshinga aka Zheng Chenggong. He's the son of a Chinese pirate and his Japanese wife. When his dad was still a roving pirate basing off of Japan, but then his dad went back to China surrendered to the Ming dynasty and become a Ming general. So at age of eight, Zheng Chenggong went to China to receive a proper Confucian education. And then the Ming dynasty collapsed. So in 1640s, the Manchus breached the Great Wall and start conquering all of China. Zheng Chenggong's father, a Ming commander, defected to the Qing government, but Zheng Chenggong decided to remain loyal to the Ming cause. And from his base along the Chinese coast, he launched his resistance against the Qing rule. At one point he even sailed into Yangtze River and almost took over the city of Nanjing. But eventually he was defeated and he realized he needed a base to secure base against the Qing. So he's cast his eyes at the Dutch colony of Taiwan where Dutch already brought over tens of thousands of Chinese migrants. And so in 1661, Zheng Chenggong brought over 25,000 troops with him and besieged the Dutch in Taiwan. This is after a year of siege, the Dutch surrendered to Koshinga. This is a Dutch painting of their surrender on Taiwan to the Ming loyalist general Koshinga. This is a modern Chinese painting of Dutch surrender on Taiwan. After taking over Taiwan, Zheng Chenggong wanted to move to the Philippines and kick the Spanish out of Manila, but he died that year. But before he died, he sent the order to execute one of his most capable generals, Si Lang. So Si Lang then escaped across the Taiwan Strait and surrendered to the Qing dynasty. After Zheng Chenggong died, he sang Zhenjing rule the island for about 20 years. But after 20 years, the defector general Si Lang had his revenge. He led the Qing force across the Taiwan Strait and conquered Taiwan for the Qing dynasty. And that happened in 1682 and that's about 100 years before the founding of the United States. This is a paint map of Taiwan in the 19th century. So after the Qing dynasty took over, the Han settlement expanded on Taiwan. And they took over the fertile plains on the east coast of Taiwan. But on the west coast of Taiwan, the east part of Taiwan, the mountainous part, was still under the control of the indigenous people. In fact, under the Qing government, the Qing officials pursue a sacred immigration policy because they don't want the mixing of the different ethnicities to cause ethnic conflict. And then they have to send the military to put down rebellions. So on mainland China, that means the Han Chinese are forbidden to migrate into Mongolia, to Manchuria, to southern Xinjiang, where the Oiguan Muslims live. And on Taiwan, the Han Chinese were forbidden to move into the indigenous people's territory. And this lasted until the end of Qing rule. There's a famous line called Tu Niu Xian or Tu Niu Line that Qing government put in place that forbids the Han settlers from crossing. And then the Americans would show up in 1850s. This is a Commodore Perry leading his black ship to forcibly open Japan and also the Luchu Kingdom on Okinawa for trade. This is a Japanese woodblock painting of Perry. And this is a Japanese woodblock painting of Perry's black ship. Perry actually stopped by Taiwan on his second trip. And he realized Taiwan's strategic importance as a midway transshipment point between the East Asian trade. Perry suggested to the United States government that U.S. should annex Taiwan. But his proposal was ignored because U.S. was busy with other things. So a few years later U.S. would be in a very bloody civil war. But after the civil war, the Americans are back. So after the end of the Second Opium War, China was forced to legalize opium trade and through open all the coastal ports to foreign traders, including the ports on Taiwan. In 1867, American merchant ship Rover sailed from the port of eastern Guangdong to Yinchou in Manchuria. But on the way it got blown off the course and shipwrecked off the coast of Taiwan. The survivors who made a shore were promptly massacred by the indigenous people for trespassing. And then American consul, Shaman China, Charles Legendre went to the Qing government demanding compensation and punishment for all the indigenous people. But the Qing official being a typical bureaucrat said, well, these people are savages. They're beyond the pale of civilization. There's nothing I can do. So Americans took that as an excuse to take matter into their own hands. They're sending the U.S. Marines landed on the island, but they were ambushed and defeated by the indigenous people on Taiwan. So the next point the American consul, Shaman, Charles Legendre went back to the Qing government. He went to the Fujian governor and he threatened that U.S. will take military action against China if nothing was done. So he's strong on the Qing governor to give him a battalion of Chinese soldiers. He went to Taiwan. He went to this area. This is the most southern tip of Taiwan, the pink area that was under indigenous control. And he forced the indigenous chief to sign a treaty to put up a lighthouse and to agree that any Western sailors that come by shore waving a red flag as a sign of distress. Indigenous people will promise not to massacre them. And to the east of Taiwan is a Luchu island chain or the traditionally Luchu Kingdom with capital on Okinawa. This Luchu Kingdom has been the tributary state to China since Ming Dynasty, but then the Tsatsuma clan of Japan subjugated Luchu Kingdom because Japan was forbidden to trade with China directly. And by subjugating Luchu Kingdom, they found a backdoor way to trade with China. So essentially Luchu Island become dual vessel of China and Japan for a long time. And by Japan after 1860s major restoration, the Japanese centralized its government about feudal domains and they wanted to annex Luchu Kingdom outright. And they found their excuse in 1871 when Luchu sailors who were coming back from Okinawa after a trade mission to send the tribute to the Okinawa King to the Luchu King. On the way back, they were blown off the course and shipwreck in Taiwan at the same place where the American ship rover shipwrecked several years before. The survivors again were massacred by the indigenous people. A few survivors escaped. They ran to the Qing authorities on Taiwan and the Qing authority fed them, closed them and sent them back to Luchu islands. And they thought the matter was closed, but Japan didn't think so because Japan demanded that Qing pay compensation on the reason that Luchu Kingdom is now a protectorate under Japan. They demanded the Qing government pay compensation and also punish the indigenous people who did the massacring. The Qing officials said, these are just savages, they're beyond the pay off civilization, nothing I can do. And then the Japan used as excuse to launch its own invasion of Taiwan. This time Japan was helped by the Americans who participated in the previous invasion of Taiwan. The former American consul to Shaman Charles Legendre became advisor to the Japanese government. He plotted out, plotted and planned the whole Japanese invasion of Taiwan. James Robert, Robert Watson of US Army Douglas Castle of US Navy who participated in the previous US expedition to Taiwan became advisor to the Imperial Japanese Army. So this is a Japanese woodblock painting of the Imperial Japanese Army basically massacring the indigenous people on Taiwan. And the Qing government one obviously didn't want Japanese troops on the island so they asked the British to mediate. And in the end the Qing agreed to pay Japanese compensation and also to compensate Japan for the cost of their expedition. The British ambassador to Japan at the time said China basically paid for the privilege of being invaded. But Japan got what it wanted. Mostly it's the implicit recognition by Qing that Luchu Kingdom is indeed under Japan protection. So Japan then moved to annex Luchu Kingdom on Okinawa. This is a picture of Japanese Imperial troops posted outside the royal palace, the Shuri Castle in Okinawa. And they turned the Luchu Kingdom on Okinawa into Okinawa Prefecture. And then in the Sino-French War of 1884 and 1885 the French Navy attacked the Penhu Islands and they also landed troops on Taiwan. And that made the Qing government finally realize the strategic importance of Taiwan. So after the conclusion of Sino-French War in 1885 the Qing officially upgraded Taiwan from mere a prefecture of Fujian province to its own province. So Taiwan was made into a province in 1885. But 10 years later, first Sino-Japanese war happened. This is a woodblock painting of the Japanese Imperial Navy sinking the Qing fleet in the Battle of Yellow Sea. As a result of China's defeat, Japan forced the Qing government to seek Taiwan to Japan. But that's not what the people on Taiwan want. They want to be Chinese subject. They don't want to be Japanese subject. So they decided to declare independence. They declared the Formosa Republic. And this is a flag of the Formosa Republic, the Tiger flag. And the Qing governor on Taiwan became the first president of Formosa Republic. And this is a newspaper published in Taiwan at the time illustrating the declaration of Formosa Republic. Their calendar year is named Yongqing, which literally means forever Qing in Chinese, which shows their loyalty to China. They just didn't want to be Japanese subject. So Japan actually had to fight another war of conquest. They landed their army on Taiwan and fought a serious battles against mostly local Hakka militias. But their power is overwhelming and they eventually took over Taiwan in 1895. And this is a painting of Japanese Imperial Army marching into the streets of Taipei in 1895. Such began the 50-year colonial rule of Japan on the island. Now that Japan didn't just subjugate all the Han settlements on the western Taiwan, Japan also subjugated the indigenous people in the eastern mountains. In fact, this led to a lot of resistance. Most famously in the 1930s, the Wuse incident, when the indigenous people rose against the Japanese colonial rule, but they were brutally put down. The Japanese air force dropped mustard gas on the indigenous communities. So eventually by the 1930s, all of Taiwan Island had been subjugated by Japan. And Japan started the Japanization program, the so-called Kominka movement. Kominka literally means imper-subject in Japanese. And to be a komin, to be a loyal imper-subject, you have to give up your Chinese name. You have to adopt a Japanese name. And you have to perform a Shinto ceremony where you give up, renounce your Chinese ancestor and adopt a fake Japanese ancestor. Now, keep in mind, out of the whole population of Taiwan, only 2% of the Taiwan population actually went through the whole process and became a full-fledged komin. And these 2% are usually matched the landed elite, the landlord class on Taiwan who collaborated with the Japanese. Among the Japanese collaborator family is that family of the former Taiwan leader Li Denghui. His brother volunteered for the Japanese Imperial Navy and died in the Battle of Manila against Americans. And he himself volunteered to be an anti-aircraft gunner for the Imperial Japanese Army in Taiwan because by 1945, American Air Force started to bomb Japanese-occupied Taiwan from air base on mainland China. And everyone in Taiwan also are forced to learn Japanese. And this ended in 1945, after the Japanese surrender. This is the day when Japan was restored back to China, according to the Cairo and Postodon Declaration. The KMT landed on Taiwan with American support. The problem is that KMT government at this time it was incredibly corrupt, which actually the civil war will break out soon on mainland China. When the KMT landed, most of a lot of the assets on Taiwan are owned by the Japanese colonial authorities. So the KMT carpet bagger officials came in, they confiscated the Japanese colonial properties, but they turned them into their own personal assets. And because of the civil war breaking out mainland China, KMT increased taxation. The inflation was rampant, and so this created a lot of discontent on the Taiwan island itself. This all come ahead on February 28, 1947, when a KMT tax collector beat up a 40 year old woman for selling unlicensed cigarettes. And when the crowd protested, the KMT shoot into the crowd, and this sparked a general uprising on the island against the KMT rule. This famous painting was painted by a left wing artist from my hometown of Chongqing, mainland China. And for this painting, he was arrested and executed in 1951 for spreading pro-communist propaganda. And this is a picture of the riot that ensued. There was a general uprising on the island. Then the founder of the Taiwan Communist Party, Xie Xuehong, led the only organized armed resistance against the KMT. She actually formed a guerrilla against the KMT, but the KMT shipped troops from mainland, and eventually the uprising was crushed and Xie Xuehong had to flee to mainland China. This begins what's known as a white terror era in Taiwan. So anyone can be accused of being a communist sympathizer and be jailed and executed. This is a picture of two women who work at the Taiwan post office. There were accused on the Trump up charges of becoming a spy. And one woman, Ding Yao Tao, she was already pregnant at the time of her arrest. So her daughter was born and raised in prison. And two years later, both of these women were executed. And this was the environment in Taiwan at the time. And this was all fully supported by United States, especially after the outbreak of Korean War. This is a picture of US Army officers training and equipping the KMT military on Taiwan. And of course, after 1949, KMT was fully defeated on Taiwan and all the KMT troops came. The KMT was fully defeated on mainland China and all the KMT troops now pulling to Taiwan with support of the Americans. And US 7th Fleet, President Truman authorized 7th Fleet to sail into the Taiwan Strait to prevent the Chinese People's Liberation Army from crossing the Taiwan Strait, from liberating the Taiwan Island. This is June 1950. So it's four months before the Chinese involvement in the Korean War. And this already happened. This is a General MacArthur on Taiwan on August 1950. This is Zhang Kaixue in the background, the leader of KMT. Oh, here's Vice President Richard Nixon presenting a picture of President Eisenhower to Zhang Kaixue on Taiwan in 1950s. And also during the Korean War, the US set up the so-called Air Defense Identification Zones, short ADIZ for Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Now, ADIZ has no basis in international law. It's unilaterally declared and includes a lot of the international airspace because each country's sovereign airspace is only limited to 12 nautical miles off its coast. But the American declared ADIZ zone includes a lot of international airspace. And look at the ADIZ in Korea. It stretches over North Korea and almost goes up to Pyongyang. And then there's a famous Taiwan ADIZ zone. You can see half of it is over mainland China. And the recent news you hear about Chinese incursion into the Taiwan airspace. This is what they're talking about. They're talking about Chinese aircraft flying over this American declared ADIZ zone. And I will talk about that later. And US also placed 12th Matador Nuclear Capable Missile in Taiwan in 1957 and later deployed a nuclear weapon on Taiwan aim at mainland China. And in 1958, during the Taiwan Strait crisis when it looks like the China, it looks like PRC was poised to take over this offshore islands that's still controlled by the KMT. US military suggested to use nuclear weapon against mainland China because they realized there's no way to stop a conventional takeover of these islands. So they recommended using nuclear weapon against the airfields on China if that doesn't stop, if that doesn't stop the PRC, they're recommended to launch nuclear weapon deep into mainland China. And they also realized this was revealed in the recent Daniel Alsberg leak. They also realized there's a possibility that Soviet Union might do a retaliation by striking Taiwan and Okinawa with nuclear weapons, but American planner decided that surprise they're willing to take. They're willing to save Taiwan, even if that means that Taiwan gets nuked. They're okay with that. Okay, so President Eisenhower visiting Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek in 1960. American troop level in Taiwan rose to 30,000 during the Vietnam War. Now this is an infamous time magazine Christmas in Vietnam special on the US military R&R AK sex tourism in East Asia from the issue of December 22, 1967, future in Taiwan. So during the Japanese colonial rule on Taiwan, the Imperial Japanese Army set up these women attended baths in Taiwan to serve the Japanese. But after the Imperial Japanese Army left, the KMT repurposed this establishment to serve the American GIs. So, you know, it was openly potted in the page of time magazine. You can find it in the time vault vault. And this is a kind of the state of Taiwan was in. Now the KMT misrule actually led to the sparks independence movement because KMT precruited unification with mainland China with the help of US killed off of the communist and leftist opposition. Joining where China is no longer an option. The opposition to KMT then turn, turn toward advocating Taiwan independence, because KMT is a Chinese nationalist party that insisted on its right to rule all of China, including Taiwan. And KMT mismanagement of the interethnic relations, most people on pre 1945 Taiwan. I'm talking about the most of Han Chinese people originally came from the Fujian province across Australia and they mostly speak Minnan language, the newcomer that came with KMT with a retreat from mainland, they came from all over China and speak different languages. And the KMT depended on the military that he brought over from mainland China for control, and by for the fair, but because KMT control of every aspect of Taiwan society. And because KMT is essentially a mainland mainlander party. So mainlanders occupied most of the leadership positions and KMT also started to force to impose standard Mandarin language on Taiwan. Now, anybody who caught speaking standard Mandarin in Taiwan schools were beaten. Okay, I grew up in 1980s China in Chongqing. At the time we are required we speak standard Mandarin in class but during the recession, we speak our own own dialect, nobody bothered us, but in Taiwan it was different in Taiwan this was very, very coerced language program. So this this all led to the resentment of so called Benson then or the Taiwan Provincials against the KMT rule. And now come 1971, United Nations had hold a vote so up to 1971, Zhang Kaixue regime on Taiwan presented itself as so legitimate ruler of all of China by 1971 majority of the country in United Nations voted in the People's Republic of China and voted out Zhang Kaixue regime from the United Nations Security Council. And the following year, Nixon visited China. And that's when us issues that join Shanghai communicate, which states, the United States acknowledged that all Chinese on either side of Taiwan straight maintain this but one China, and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States government does not challenge this position we affirms the interest of the peaceful settlement of Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves. So this is important because back when it was issue, most of the people on Taiwan still identify as Chinese. Right, so he says all Chinese on the either side of Taiwan straight. So in response as a US normalizes ties with China US Congress put forth the Taiwan Relations Act because, you know, for a long time US Congress had this so called Thai China lobby, which back the junk I shed regime, including the owner of time life, media empire Henry loose. And these congressmen put up the Taiwan Relations Act which support us is supposed to assess Taiwan, assess Taiwan in maintaining self defense capability in effort to determine future Taiwan by other than peaceful means. The effort of determining type future Taiwan other than peaceful mean would be of great concern to the United States. So this this Taiwan Relations Act actually does not oblige us to the defense of Taiwan it just says us should help Taiwan with self defense. What is actually translated to in reality is every, I mean, US sell all these outdated expensive weapons to Taiwan that basically helps to feed the industrial military industrial complex back home. Taiwan enters the Zhang Jing Guo era after the death of John Kai Shea in 1975. Now John Jing Guo is a more enlightened dictator compared to his to his dad. He was sent to study in Soviet Union in 1920s. And that's where he met and married his wife. In fact, when he was studying Moscow he met then shopping and to became close friends. When KMT came to Taiwan they started land reform, which they couldn't do in mainland China because back back in mainland China came to support base is a landlord class. But on Taiwan, the KMT support base is a KMT army and they're not obligated to the Taiwan land only class so they actually carry out land reform. And under Zhang Jing Guo's rule Taiwan start to take off economically and toward the end of his rule in 1987 Zhang Jing Guo finally lifted and the martial law ending the white terror era of Taiwan. So, before 1987 is illegal to form any political party on Taiwan, you know only only legal political party is a KMT. So that was ended in 1987 and all the censorship were relaxed. But Zhang Jing Guo died the following year in 1988 and that paved way for the Taiwan democratization process. Now, Zhang Jing Guo also recognize that there's no hope for KMT to take back mainland China that in order to stay in Taiwan long term he need to incorporate the locals, the Taiwan locals into his administration. So he promoted a whole bunch of Taiwan locals into the KMT ranks, and one of them is his successor, Li Deng Hui. So both Li Deng Hui and the current Taiwan leader, Tsai Ing-wen were the Taiwan locals who joined the KMT administration. And under Li Deng Hui, a final election was held in 1996. Now, keep in mind the democratization of Taiwan almost happens simultaneously with the democratization process happening in South Korea and both being basically US backed the right wing military dictatorship. There's a reason for that because in the late 80s, early 90s, that's the ending, winding down of the Cold War. US can no longer justify supporting right wing dictatorship. Well, and not that with a straight face. You know, US still do that, but it's increasingly harder to justify. So the democratization process on Taiwan and South Korea actually confer an extra level of legitimacy to the continued support of US to these governments. And next thing in 1992, the representative from mainland China and Taiwan actually met in Hong Kong, and this became the basis of what's so-called 92 consensus. So 92 consensus says there's only one China, but from Taiwan side, they take it to mean there's one China, but different interpretations, whether that China is People's Republic of China or Republic of China, that is open to interpretation. On the mainland side, their interpretation is there's only one China. And in fact, the Xi Jinping and my angel met in Singapore in 2015 and Xi Jinping has stated publicly, as long as 1992 consensus and its core values are acknowledged, we stand ready to have contact. And so and even in 1915, I mean, 2015, Taiwan leader my angel still affirmed the nine adherence to 1992 consensus, which is there's only one China. Okay, now the fun part is the most recent hype tension in the media about the Chinese aggression. So I took a screenshot from the John Oliver video of showing the PLA aircraft intruding over Taiwan's ADIA zone. So I'm surprised to actually picture the Taiwan ADIA zone to show you how ridiculous it is half of it is over mainland China. And the second fall, they actually mapped out the PLA aircraft flight path. This is pink line right here as you can see, it's as far as Taiwan Island itself as possible. I mean, this is still closer to mainland Chinese coast and it's to Taiwan. And certainly that this area is international airspace Taiwan has no jurisdiction over this, you know, at best what China is doing is what, what is the equivalent of US freedom of navigation patrol this will be the Chinese equivalent of the flight of freedom of flight, not of flight, flight of freedom. Sorry, too much acronym. I saw I actually saw, I follow the Twitter of Taiwan Defense Ministry, they actually tweeted out you know on daily basis of flight path of PLA aircraft so this happened on November 17 so so you either yesterday or a couple days ago depending on your time zone. And you can see this is an actual flight path of the PLA aircraft, this little red arrow right here is so far from Taiwan, I mean, so why. Xi Jinping gave a speech recently during the 100 year anniversary of 1911 Chinese revolution, he actually said, Okay, so I took I went to YouTube and I took the Guardian. The Guardian channel to take the Guardian translation because you guys are not going to believe me if I take the Chinese state media version. So according to the Guardian translation of the Xi Jinping speech. You can still find on YouTube just type Xi Jinping, Taiwan speech. This Xi Jinping said this reunification through a peaceful manner is the most in line with the overall interest of the Chinese nation, including Taiwan compatriot. And of course this got spinning the Western media to Xi Jinping reiterate the pledge to swallow up Taiwan. Why hype up the tensions well for on the side of Taiwan for the Taiwan politicians the fear mongering actually win votes. The current Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen's approval rating was in the single digits before that her last reelection, the fear mongering about the PRC during the past actually help her to win the election. So any hyping the cross the straight tensions will help her party to win elections. This, this is, if anybody still pretend Taiwan is not a appendage of the US empire. Here's the Tsai Ing-wen's congratulation tweet to Donald Trump on his presidency democracy is what ties Taiwan and us together look forward to advance our friendship congratulations Donald Trump and then in 2020 during the, the, the, our latest election, there was a pet white spread panic in Taiwan because a lot of the people, a lot of these separatists, they were so pro Trump that they went all in on Trump there was a panic. Among the pro Trump citizens when Trump last election on Taiwan. This article from Newsweek on November. Taiwan president urged calm as pro Trump citizen panic, amid Biden vote surges so yeah okay. Now why, why the reason for us to hype up attention the US national security establishment. US tension US China tension is useful justify near trillion dollar defense budget I know we're not exactly trillion dollars yet, but it's their goal to get there. And we get this ridiculous headline like the Coast Guard is vital to defend Taiwan against China. They're not talking about Taiwan Coast Guard they're talking about US Coast Guard. Okay, so the griff is so ridiculous that that's so transparent. Again, you know us spend 13 billion dollars to build the USS for aircraft carrier and us is planned. Sorry, I use my own tweet. And us is planning to build 10 of these right and you know what health care, they don't care about health care. Okay, so this I this this wraps up my my talk I tried to make it brief to leave question time for question, maybe from Madison so we can make it more interactive. Thank you for giving me up allowing me time for do this presentation. Thank you so much Carl. Thank you so much for those slides images and maps and for that rapid pace comprehensive summary of history and the layers of colonization in Taiwan which is really tragic and should not be taken lightly, especially the Japanese colonial era which was very violent and brutal. This is super helpful breakdown so let's see and I say we have some lively discussion in the chat. Thank you all for offering your opinions. So I wanted to follow up with a couple things. You talk about, let's see so you mentioned john Oliver and so for folks who aren't aware there's a recent segment that john Oliver decided to do on Taiwan and issue of Taiwan and status and recognition of Taiwan as a nation or not, which he acknowledges that the UN and the WHO don't generally acknowledge Taiwan as a nation even in the segment. But it was a big deal that he addressed it. And so, kind of following everything you talked about why do you think there is this sudden intense fixation on Taiwan, especially from the west especially from the US State Department and mainstream media right now. And what does john Oliver leave out of his popular piece, you mentioned how there is a bit of lack lacking nuance, and he actually uses up so much more time and speaks even slower than you but he still manages to leave out some nuance so yeah. So I, I, I actually did a reaction video to the john Oliver segment with Taiwanese communist rapper Xiang Yu. And the show you actually dug out the people who actually did the research for john Oliver's piece and and they're like your, your, your, your think tankers your one of them, Jessica drawing is works for the project 2049, which is a American US neocon think tank. One of them James James Lee, I think he is, he is on literally on the payroll on the Taiwan government. And so this is like, who I mean, and then the whole bunch of NED adjacent organizations. So the, the, the, this is, these are the source of john Oliver piece but to address your question, why is the recent tension I think I still a lot of one thing that he failed address is to present it as a Chinese aggression toward Taiwan but distract from the bigger picture. I already talked about his, his presentation of the massive Chinese flight over the Taiwan AD is on what gets fail gets to mention is that that was a response to the Chinese to the US seventh fleet with with a combined fleet with of Japan, Australia, UK. They sailed a huge armada through Bashi channel between Taiwan and Philippines and enter into South China see to perform military exercise in South China see that's what China was responding to, it wasn't even a message to Taiwan it was a message to United States because I think the Chinese leader understand really that the cross the cross straight relation is really is really a between US is really a China, a matter of US China relations. And at this, at this point, you know people say oh, you know what about Taiwan you know, unfortunately, you know, right now Taiwan. Don't have too much to say because you know you all we hear is is the side we hear from the, from the, from the US State Department, or the press release from the Pentagon. And for them, it's useful to present this as us is defending the freedom of Taiwan people found the found the Chinese Communist likes they have been saying since 1950s. But, but what you know we all know us don't really care about human rights of people in other countries, we what we do know is that US find this as a wedge point to increase the US China tensions to continually funneling increasing funds into the US industrial complex, you know US Navy wants to have a 355 warship Navy, you know I think right now they're up to 300 they still want to build 55 more warships. These are the things that for them to justify the budget increase. You know, this is why we cannot have health care or better infrastructure in this country because we need to spend all these gazillions of dollars to quote unquote defending Taiwan. I hope that answer your question. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much yeah and in terms of. I mean the US is history as a military power and an imperial power. We know there's extensive genocide, but even currently, as you spoke a bit about the view to Kingdom and Okinawa. Currently, our tax dollars are being spent building a dangerous base in Hanoi Kobe and Okinawa so we are also putting the Israeli defense dome in Guam right now and raising carbon sequestering forests in places like Guam and northern And people in Okinawa don't want American military there they have made it clear in the last 50 years that the majority people on Okinawa want the US military out you know so all these pretensions we are there to protect our Asian allies because our Asian allies want us there this is a lie you know Okinawan people don't want US military on the island. Now some people say oh but Japan want the US there. Well that's because Japan kind of treat the people Okinawa as a second class citizens and they didn't want the US military based on their Japanese main island so the sticks of US Marine based on Okinawa and and as I mentioned a little bit about the history of Okinawa used to be its own independent kingdom, and it has never been treated by by government of Japan as a equal part of their territory. Right and we have Colonel Anne Wright was here she's one of our partners and volunteers and she also mentioned Jeju Island and similar history of anti communist extermination and such. Yeah, thank you. And also the framing of China as uniquely aggressive or more aggressive than the US when the US is across the world with warships doing joint exercises daily and and if you want like simple evidence of this as a US citizen. Go ahead and check on the websites or the social media of any of our Indo Pacific command or our Navy or Air Force our military and Marines, and they're just bragging about these joint force exercises they're doing including within pass imperial nations like Japan, the UK, Canada, and using the hashtags like lethality and joint force lethality so that this is happening and the aggression is being led by the US. Yeah, I asked my friends who live in Taiwan they said, Oh, you know everything is normal life is life goes on you know, whereas in US when all our information comes from these propaganda mainstream media channel, everybody think China is launching imminent invasion of Taiwan. That is not happening. Okay. For those of you who want to see that I'm sorry, you know, a liberation of Taiwan is not going to happen anytime soon. There's no pending Chinese invasion of Taiwan that that's that's just not in the cards like any for just for pure practical reason for any kind of operation to take place. There will be a huge mass of troops on the on the Chinese coast that could easily be spotted on by the satellite so so so there's no pending invasion of Taiwan let me let me just be clear about that. And right now, you know there's a US has an interest to hype up these maneuvers as as you know of super aggressive Chinese move to again to feed the military industrial grift at home. And the fixation in the media and government here in the US in the West. It also aligns with the US military leaving Afghanistan and having less of a foothold on that border of China to quote contain China so the timeliness of this fixation is also important to consider. Is there any peace movement on the ground that you know of in Taiwan. Is there any domestic descent or opposition to Taiwan's mass spending on US weapons. Recently there was a 70 750 million dollar arms sale that we uplifted educated on and tried to oppose at the United States with pink how it serves and and pretty sophisticated equipment actually that goes in opposition to the three communique is agreement to not sell the sophisticated weapons. Also just generally Taiwan's increasing reliance on US military environment involvement and US troops being on Taiwanese soil. I don't think there is currently any organized movement but I for people who understand Chinese I highly recommend you go on YouTube and Google these street interviews that they conducted on streets of Taipei so so Taiwan people people are asked about their views on the the usefulness of this US weaponry and almost all of them says these weapons are useless, but that you know all agree this is some a price they have to pay for some sort of American help so so it's essentially protection money everybody understand these these high high budget high price items are outdated this actually not it's not actually useful. It's just something they have to keep feeding the US military industrial complex to keep us happy so so they take Taiwan side so that's that's kind of the over veiling public opinions on the street. Yeah, the disclosure that troops have been in Taiwan US troops for over a year. Some, some people have been assuming that for a while but the public disclosure was not a not welcome by Beijing definitely and in many ways US military causes devastation and violence for anyone on bases that are overseas like economic deprivation violence from accidents contamination like PFAS chemicals, military crimes etc. I also want to bring up, you talked about indigeneity in Taiwan and we hear a lot of misconceptions misinterpretations we hear different narratives. It can be pretty confusing for just the average Western citizen trying to support the right thing. Can you speak to how these misconceptions or misunderstandings become entrenched where that begins, particularly in the present day and are there any parallels to how revisionist history gets taught elsewhere like in the US. The main backers of Taiwan separatist movement are not the Taiwan indigenous people. Let me put it back that out there. They are the Han Chinese on Taiwan which now consists of almost 98% of the Taiwan population. The 2% of the indigenous people on Taiwan has been has traditionally been marginalized and you know that that has that has been the case and there's no when they say when you hear media is talking about native Taiwanese depending independence. They're not talking about indigenous Taiwan people in demanding their island back. They're talking about the, you know, the Han Chinese people on Taiwan who came to Taiwan, whose ancestor came to Taiwan before 1945. So there's a difference there. In fact, I didn't want to go too much into detail about Taiwan domestic politics, because you know, I don't know how much of the interest into the American audience, but I did cover that extensively with my talk with Xiang Yu on our on my podcast, the Taiwan history series. So right now Taiwan has two parties just like us like two party system. I want has DPP and the KMT the KMT still nominally pay lip service to like one China principle. And whereas DPP is normally seen as a pro independence party. Now, the indigenous people will on Taiwan vote overwhelmingly for KMT. And why I think one, one, one, one, one, one person told the Xiang Yu that, you know, at least the KMT has a decency to buy votes from us. So DPP does nothing for us. I mean, it's very, it's very practical way approach, but so that that that's, you know, that's people need to realize when they when the American media saying native Taiwan needs to demanding independence, they're not talking about the indigenous people who have been living on the islands for thousands of years. Thank you. Let's see. We have a question from coal at mass peace action and I'll add a little to it. He's wondering what is the United States right now has the Innovation and Competition Act to build in the Senate they recently were trying to push it through in the U.S. NDAA Pentagon budget. Right now they're really trying to push it through Pelosi is trying to take it to conference without having a bill in the house. It's companion bill was supposed to be the Eagle Act which we've been opposing at mass peace action and code pink, and it hasn't been put to a vote so in some sense, somebody is hearing some opposition, whether within the house or from the public. There's nothing to do with many things it's huge but one thing I want to point out to specify. It has military funding for the Asia Pacific, it has provisions for more joint force exercises with the U.S. allies like the quad. It has anti China propaganda mass funding, like 500 million for Radio Free Asia outlets like that the U.S. Global Agency for media has McCarthyist provisions about surveilling Chinese students and researchers. And then it has a lot of funding for science and research including micro trips. So there's the Taiwan connection can you talk a little about that. Yeah, let me talk about the semiconductor so so you know even John Oliver talk about semiconductors. So, you know, Taiwan manufacturer, most of the world semiconductor, and during the trial Donald Trump administration, Trump forbid Taiwan to export semiconductors to mainland Chinese companies such as Huawei. And because of this, because of this, this is, so the now they're posting this as China might invade Taiwan because they need semiconductors. Well, they need semiconductors because Trump forbid Taiwan from selling semiconductors to mainland China. And now there's a shortage of semiconductor worldwide. Why because Trump also US also plays sanction on semiconductor manufacturers on mainland China so so any company that has any US business are forbidden to purchase semiconductor from mainland China so that means GM, a US company GM in China making cars for the Chinese market, they are not allowed to you purchase chips from the Chinese indigenous Chinese semiconductor manufacturer. They are not allowed to put in cars as they sell in China. So this is a, this is in a way kind of artificially created semiconductor shortage by the US policy US policy certainly made it a lot, a lot worse. And US also demanded that the Taiwan semiconductors will hand over their trade secret to the US there was a they demanded a technology transfer and the Taiwan semiconductor a comply, you know, and and this is, you know, to say that, you know, you know, how can that this is a kind of the fate of being a US colony you don't have sovereignty you know if US want something from you you have to you have to submit whether that means you have to pay for expensive useless high tech weapons or you means you have to hand over trade secrets. Yeah, that's a side of things that there's so many elements to the US and Western hybrid war on China. The science and tech side is one element and that's how the Biden administration and Congress are also justifying domestic spending, which in some ways is good we do on some domestic spending for infrastructure and research but it's being justified just like military spending by this inflated threat of China, everything has to be done in opposition to the falsely inflated falsely constructed expansion is China which is it doesn't actually have these kinds of intentions that are placed on to it. I included the in my slides, the meetings between the mainland and Taiwan representatives for talks is because there has always been talks between the two sides. You know, there's a there's a long going conversation but US is inserting itself into this conversation between between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. And, and you know, why is the US business, like I just saw a tweet a ridiculous article today, someone say oh Taiwan is not ready to defend itself you know we're so frustrated why Taiwan is not spending more money on its military why they're not the why they're not so frustrating for us at Taiwan is not ready to defend itself. It's like, it's none of us business I mean like is it, are you really proposing we're going to have to defend Taiwan to the to the last Americans to the last drop of Americans I mean that's just a ridiculous, ridiculous proposition. I mean there's so many things we can focus here at home we can we can focus on developing us we can can focus on fixing the broken infrastructure we can fixing on on the you know providing universal healthcare, but right now there's no money for it because all the money goes on to feed our military. And, and we have to make up all kind of bogus reasons like this Taiwan threat. Definitely with the Pentagon budget is so overblown and is just draining resources from life affirming services that could be going to us citizens. Instead, we're just held back on maintaining a war economy in terms of our government and the Biden administration and the military industrial complex. I want to ask also, let's see. You, this is question from Charles shoe of child collective and child collective is one of our co sponsors for this webinar. I'm also curious how the Japanese colonial era is remembered in Taiwan among Haka versus indigenous people and whether that tracks with attitudes regarding independence. Okay, so I think the short answer is the KMT has mismanaged Taiwan so much that made the people in Taiwan feeling nostalgia for the for the Japanese colonial era. So, the one reason is because Japanese colonial rule has become so distant memory by now, whereas the KMT miss Roy's fairly recent right after 1945. And so people kind of post this kind of false dichotomy between Oh, at least life were better than KMT in the in the Japanese colonial era, which, which is kind of selective reading of history. This is kind of the contradiction on the island itself. Yes, yes, definitely. It definitely tracks the, the kind of pro separatist pro independent sentiment on Taiwan. And what happened, you know, after the Taiwan's democratization process is that, you know, the decade of anti communist propaganda on Taiwan Island itself, combine that the kind of this, this, this distaste for the KMT rule is KMT we're seeing as Oh, these are the outsiders that come from mainland China, these are mainlanders combined with that, that the anti communist propaganda about mainland China. And that kind of foster a kind of very distorted view of mainland China among I think many Taiwan youth. It's unfortunate, and that's what it is. It is what it is. Yeah, there's a lot of unfortunate trauma and internal divisions that come with that kind of the layers of colonization. But I also like to point out, you know, you know, since lifting of so 1987 is when Taiwan finally lifted restriction on on people going visit family on mainland. And in 19 in 2000 is when they agreed to direct communication between Taiwan and China before 2000 you to fly to Taiwan businessman to go to China, go to Shanghai they have to first fly to Hong Kong, and then from Hong Kong fly to Shanghai because there's no direct flights. So after 2000 as a restriction finally lifted on the Taiwan side. So now they can go back and forth. And now there's an estimate somewhere between 1.5 million to 2 million Taiwan people living, studying, working on mainland China so so there are cross communication cross-strait communication at the grass level happening as we speak. Yeah, and it reminds me of, you know, the Korean Peninsula and the forced separation of families there from the border created by US interference. And there's a war that is still ongoing that we're calling generally for that could pink. And I think also at mass peace action for an end to that US war and intervention. And yeah, even my own grandfather, he's 92. He recalls how there were indigenous people in Taiwan prior to prior to the came to came to prior to Japanese colonization prior to everything. The divisions created by US interventionism he has compared it to South Vietnam and South Korea as well. Let's see I think we'll just do one more question. I know we're over the hour but I wanted to leave some room for audience questions. Thank you so much for being here Carl. My last question is just opening it up to what possibilities do you see for regional stability mutual cooperation and what globally we refer in the international community and such as maintaining the status quo, and maintaining strategic ambiguity that's that's kept peace in the region between the US and China, and the island of Taiwan, and including nuclear disarmament because we know that the US is the one of the only powers to have threatened well it's the only power to have dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and, and it almost had a nuclear strike on China during the Taiwan Strait crisis so what possibilities you see for regional trust and cooperation. Yeah, US only pull out his nuclear weapon out of Taiwan in 1974. And right now, I think I, it's my hope more kind of wish that China, Taiwan relation can maybe at least go back to like 2010s level when, when things are, are less heated and keep in mind that from the from the PRC side that it has the PRC rhetoric is has been pretty consistent over the years. They want peaceful reunification. So I don't think there's any kind of pending invasion of Taiwan by the PLA anytime soon I think the mainland China is fine with the status quo, unless they move, you know, separatists on the island to move to declare formal independence and I don't think the government on Taiwan will do that user because the DPP has been in power several times on Taiwan they never move toward actually actually go ahead and declare independence as is their party platform because they correctly understand just as like the Chinese US military understand that's while it's it's useful to manufacturing tension, you know for their own political gain, but it's not it's no fun when if actually everything that the false of cards falling down so it that that's why we're tying when the current leaders say oh we don't need to declare independence because we're already independent. So, so she is kind of back back peddling in that regard so I don't think there will be a war in Taiwan, but I do wish for increased economic engagement at least economic engagement I think everybody can agree on because right now, I think 40% 40% of the Taiwan economy is is depending on on on trade with with with the mainland China so the two sides are very already economically very much integrated. But, you know, just need to get us out of the picture you know the US span on the semiconductor export from Taiwan to mainland that's totally ridiculous like. Why does us get to dictate what does Taiwanese company do to sell to customers on mainland that's that's crazy but you know that's what us do because us is is a world hedge hedge amount I think there will be a lot more room for cooperation between the two side. If the US stop encouraging certain elements on Taiwan for encourage for you know stirring up tensions because let's face it Taiwan is still very much a client state of United States and the government on Taiwan won't do anything without explicit approval and backing of United States government. And so it goes back to to us so I see some encouraging signs because the recent she Biden summit where Biden again reiterate the US will abide by the one China policy and US will not support Taiwan independence. I see that that as a positive sign because Biden has said that you know let's not let's make sure our competition. Not veer into conflict it's actually interesting to contrast the speech get opening speech given by she and Biden because she actually said, you know, the both American and Chinese people want us to work together in friendship and cooperation. What Biden actually said was, we need to make sure the company our competition does not veer into conflict, just, just straight and fair competition so he's still stressing the competition part. And I think Biden is speaking to his domestic audience you know that he doesn't want people to label him as a panda hugger or Beijing Biden. And, and at the same time he did recognize, we need to cool off the tensions we need to cool off the rhetoric. So it doesn't actually go into a hot war, which benefits nobody. And, and, but, but again I don't think the US deep state is going to give up on the on the competition aspect because that's what will continue to provide the trillion dollar grid for the military for the intelligence services. You know, for all the for the other arms manufacturers. So, so I, yeah, it's, it's, it's unfortunate but I think for the left wing people for the people leaning on the left on the US, we should focus on what we can focus on anti imperialism we can, we should be and you know, anti interventionism US has no business to to interfere in the in the affairs of other countries. Nobody elected us to do it nobody elected Biden to, you know, nobody on mainland China or nobody on Taiwan elected by Right. I mean, so what does US have the right to speak for for the people outside of his borders, and there's plenty of problems in US and we need our energy to focus on you know building a better, more adjustable justice society here at home, and I think that's like a baseline we can all agree on and then build the common alliance. Thank you. Yeah, that's, that's great and totally agree about economic cooperation and I think it's our toe in the chat as also mentioned the influence of also right wing Taiwanese back to media in the US so this relationship kind of going both ways the idea of like neocolonial collaboration and such. And I think it's also worth reemphasizing that US weapons and services and troops won't actually protect Taiwan won't actually save and preserve the safety of Taiwan in the case of war US military and then interventions also don't ever make human rights improve in, especially not human rights or infrastructure or the environment during this climate catastrophe and never improves any of those things while US citizens at home suffer from a lack of services and resources. Thanks again Carl and thanks to mass peace action and our co sponsors. Please check out Carl's extensive podcast, which is on YouTube on the history of Taiwan. And please follow mass peace action and the code pink China is not our enemy campaign. As we build the movement to counter and dismantle us aggression. And the US hybrid war on China to promote a future for people peace, the planet and for everyone in the future yeah. Thank you so much. And thank you for the organizers of coping for inviting me to speak. Thank you for putting our background on right before and from calling all the way from Bali, Indonesia, early in the morning for him.