隱形的原因

顧屏山 矽谷 Sing Tao Daily, November 11, 2023 一位好久不見的舊識邀請我們參加周四晚上史丹佛大學紀錄片《隱形國家》（Invisible Nation）放映活動。這是一個與老友重聚並享用主辦者承諾的免費便餐的機會。可是，當我們到達時卻發現，所有的便當都拿光了。這是一系列令人失望的事情中的首樁。 《隱形國家》被宣傳為一部關於台灣的紀錄片，已開始在美國各地放映。按照新聞業的傳統標準，紀錄片應該透過呈現純粹的事實來提供資訊和教育，並讓觀眾得出自己的結論。「隱形」的片名使該紀錄片成為笑柄，它對蔡英文進行毫不掩飾的崇拜，也對台灣作為民主典範全面認可。 《隱形國家》充滿了缺陷，主要是對歷史和個人資訊的故意遺漏。 這部影片描繪從荷蘭殖民這座島嶼開始的台灣歷史，並聲稱唯一由一個政府同時控制大陸和台灣是在1945年至1949年。二戰結束後，蔣介石和收復台灣的國民黨短暫地統治台灣，蔣介石被迫從大陸逃到台灣。這往好處說是具誤導性，往壞處說則是徹頭徹尾的謊言。 解放台灣的鄭成功 不被提及 影片甚至沒有提及鄭成功。他是明朝末年領導人，抵抗滿清佔據中國，並將荷蘭人逐出台灣而撤退到這裡。鄭的孫子最後向北京的清廷投降。此後的幾個世紀裡，台灣一直是中國的一部分，直到北京政府在海戰中打敗仗，於1895年將台灣割讓給日本。 《隱形國家》也沒有提到由盟國起草要求日本無條件投降條款的《波茨坦宣言》（Potsdam Declaration），要日本將台灣交還給中國。在整個戰爭期間，美國堅持承認台灣是中國的一部分。當尼克森總統訪問中國時，這種認知還一直存在，並得到卡特總統和此後歷屆美國總統的重申。 這部紀錄片確實正確地將李登輝的行為，歸因於在政治上擺脫國民黨政府的高壓統治。李登輝接替蔣介石的兒子蔣經國擔任領導人。蔣介石於1949年從大陸撤退到台灣，蔣經國於1978年上任，開始實行自由化並放鬆對台灣的控制。他挑選李登輝擔任副總統，因為李是在台灣出生。 蔣經國可能不知道李有一個日本名字叫岩里政男。眾所周知，以日語為母語的李登輝曾向來訪的日本政要透露，自己更偏向日本，而不是中國。事實上，他哥哥在二戰期間身為日本皇軍成員戰死，他的名字與其他戰死者以及一些被定罪的戰犯一起被供奉在東京靖國神社。 二戰結束後，仍有不少日本人留在台灣。他們改用中文姓氏，並融入當地社會。忠誠度分裂問題以及估計有十萬日本人和其後代對台灣政治的影響，一直沒有被研究。 阿扁也沒有被提及 以李登輝為例，他在擔任台灣政府領導人後，逐步破壞和削弱國民黨，為台灣從反對派民進黨中選出首任總統，鋪平了道路，從而終結國民黨長達55年的不間斷統治。不知何故，本應在紀錄片中佔顯著位置的陳水扁，在《隱形國家》中卻一次也沒有被提及。 陳水扁不僅成為民進黨首任總統，更巧妙地操縱和分化反對陣營，而成為唯一以低於40%的得票率獲勝的總統。他也成為首位在任期結束後因貪腐而立即入獄的台灣總統。他是那種會為任何民主制度帶來毀譽的總統，人們很難責怪這部紀錄片的導演將陳排除在敘述之外。 除了成為台灣近代史上的污點外，陳水扁還下令重新編寫學童的歷史教科書。修訂後的教科書刪除了任何有關台灣與中國歷史、文化和民族血統聯繫的內容。一個世代的台灣年輕人在成長過程中並不知道，他們的祖先並不是從地裡冒出來，而是世世代代從閩南跨過台灣海峽而來。台灣話聽起來跟閩南地區的閩南話幾乎一模一樣。如果有機會學習中國歷史，他們就會知道，早在西元前200年左右的漢代，大陸就已經知悉這個沿海島嶼了。 帶頭發起向日葵抗議活動的年輕人，一股腦地高呼自由，卻未意識到台灣經濟對大陸貿易的依賴，就也毫不奇怪了。每年台灣對大陸的貿易順差，都超過對世界其他地區的貿易逆差總合。這是北京刻意給予台灣特殊優惠政策的成果。 向日葵抗議者的暴力程度不如2019年的香港抗議者，但也同樣破壞公共財產、入侵政府議會、侮辱民選官員。這一切都被紀錄在這部紀錄片中。但既然是打著爭取民主的旗號，在過程中觸犯幾條法律又有什麼大不了的呢？ 當然，台灣的年輕人也不全是傻瓜。聰明並有成就的人明白，他們的未來取決於快速成長的大陸經濟。許多人居住在大陸，並為位於中國大陸的台灣公司工作。有些人甚至在中國本土公司工作。向日葵世代可能不關心經濟、工作和事業。但認真的年輕人並非如此。 民進黨的正面形象 這部電影自然出現了台灣現任總統蔡英文的許多言論和演講。其他在片中發言的人物，包括她的崇拜者和追隨者，甚至跨性別內閣部長。影片吹噓台灣是亞洲首個承認同性婚姻並保護性小眾（LGBTQ）權利的國家。當然，這是一種進步思維的表現，甚至比美國領先一步。 本片也收錄了聯邦眾議院議長普洛西（Nancy Pelosi）不顧一切忠告堅持訪台的片段，此舉令蔡英文和民進黨興奮不已。首府華盛頓最有權勢的女性會見台灣首位女總統，沒有比這更棒的事了。謝天謝地，《隱形國家》沒有收錄蔡英文向普洛西帶上「選美肩帶」的影片，也沒有討論普洛西如何踩踏紅線，極大加劇兩岸緊張局勢，引發解放軍的威脅性敵對反應。 影片本來可以採訪很多人，但都沒有採訪。他們本來可以採訪在大陸生活和工作的台灣人，詢問對兩岸關係的看法。他們本來可以採訪絕大多數台灣民眾，後者其實更願意維持現狀，既不追求統一，也不追求獨立。 他們本來可以訪問街上的人對與山姆大叔的關係有何看法：美國真的會來與台灣軍隊並肩作戰嗎？他們對華盛頓強迫蔡英文政府購買過時的武器有何感想？他們對於被迫從美國農民那裡購買受污染的豬肉有何感想？對於拜登強迫台積電將先進晶片工廠遷到亞利桑那州，然後遭遇預料之外的勞工問題、成本超支、建設延誤等問題，有何看法？還有，拜登是否尊重台灣的「主權」？ 台灣是一個隱形國家，原因很簡單，即台灣根本不是一個國家，而是中國的一個省，就那麼簡單。

Review of documentary on Taiwan: "Invisible Nation," invisible for a reason.

Edited version of Invisible for a reason was posted on Asia Times. I was interviewed on national podcast, "Critical Hour." Critical_Hour_1342_seg_3.mp3 On Youtube video by Veterans for Peace, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT0IFTuzb7o&t=505s A dear friend we have not seen for sometime invited us to attend a viewing of “Invisible Nation,” at Stanford on Thursday evening. It was a chance to visit with an old friend and pick up a light dinner promised by the organizers. By the time we got there, all the bento boxes were taken. It was the first of a list of disappointments. Invisible Nation is billed as a documentary on Taiwan and is beginning to be shown around America. By traditional standards of journalism, a documentary film is supposed to inform and educate by presenting unadulterated facts and let the viewers come to their own conclusion. “Invisible” makes a mockery of the term of documentary. It is an unabashedly adulation of Tsai Ing-wen and blanket endorsement of Taiwan as a model democracy. The flaws of Invisible are many, mostly by calculated omissions of history and personal information. The film portrays Taiwan’s history beginning with the Dutch colonization of the island and claims that the only time one government controlled both the mainland and Taiwan was from 1945 to 1949. The government was the short reign of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang that reclaimed Taiwan after the end of World War II, and ended when he had to flee from the mainland to Taiwan. This is most misleading at best and outright lie at its worst. Koxinga, liberator of Taiwan, not in the narrative The film fails to even mention Koxinga, aka Zheng Chenggong, the end of Ming dynasty leader who resisted the takeover of the mainland by the Manchus and retreated to Taiwan by evicting the Dutch from the island. Zheng’s grandson eventually surrendered to the Qing imperial court in Beijing. For centuries thereafter, Taiwan was part of China until the Beijing government lost a sea war to Japan and Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895. Invisible also does not mention the Potsdam Declaration that stipulated the terms of Japan’s unconditional surrender, drafted by the allies, in which Japan was to hand Taiwan back to China. Throughout the war, United States was insistent in recognizing Taiwan as part of China. This recognition persisted when President Richard Nixon went to China and reaffirmed by President Jimmy Carter and by every American president ever since. The mockumentary did correctly attribute the actions of Lee Teng-hui for the political turn away from the heavy-handed rule of the Nationalist government. Lee succeeded Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek who led the retreat from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949. The son took over in 1978 and began to liberalize and loosen the control of the island. He selected Lee to be his vice president because Lee was a Taiwan native born. Chiang was probably unaware that Lee also went by his Japanese name, Iwasato Masao. In fact, Lee/Iwasato, a native speaker of Japanese, was known to confide to visiting dignitaries from Japan that his allegiance leaned more to Japan than to China. In fact, his older brother was killed in action during WWII as a member of the Japanese imperial army and his name is enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo among other war dead and some convicted war criminals. After WWII, there were many Japanese that remained in Taiwan. They took on Chinese surnames and merged into the local society. The question of divided loyalty and the influence of an estimated hundred thousand Japanese that stayed along with their descendants on Taiwan’s politics has not been studied. A Bian not in the narrative either In the case of Lee, after he assume the leadership of the Taiwan government, he gradually undermined and weakened the KMT organization that paved the way for Taiwan to elect its first president from the KMT opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party, thus ending KMT’s 55 years of continuous rule. Somehow, the name of Chen Shui-bian that should have figured prominently in the documentary was not mentioned even once in Invisible. Chen Shui-bian not only became the first president from DPP, he cleverly manipulated and divided the opposition and became the only president to win with less than 40% of the votes. He also became the first Taiwan president to be immediately imprisoned for wanton corruption at the end of his term of office. He was the kind of president that would give any democracy a bad name and one can hardly blame the director of the documentary for leaving Chen out of her story. Aside from being a blot on Taiwan’s modern history, Chen ordered a consequential rewrite of school children’s history textbooks. Obliterated in the revised textbooks was any reference of Taiwan’s linkage to China’s history, culture and ethnic origin. A generation of young Taiwanese people grew up not knowing that their ancestors did not spring out of the ground but came across the Taiwan strait from southern Fujian for many generations. That the Taiwan dialect sounds almost exactly the same as Minnan dialect off southern Fujian. That if they had a chance to study Chinese history, they would know that as early as the Han dynasty around 200 BCE, the mainland already knew about the island offshore. Small wonder that the generation of young hotheads, that spearheaded the sunflower protest, screamed for freedom but did not appreciate Taiwan’s economic dependence on trade with the mainland. Every year, Taiwan’s trade surplus with mainland more than offset the entire trade deficit with the rest of the world. The is a consequence of Beijing’s deliberate policy to give Taiwan special preference. The sunflower protesters were not as violent as the Hong Kong protesters of 2019 but they nevertheless destroyed public property, invaded the government parliament, and insulted publicly elected officials. All of which was recorded in the mockumentary. But since it was in the name of fighting for democracy, what’s the big deal of breaking a few laws along the way? Of course, not all Taiwan’s youth are lunkheads. The intelligent, high achievers understand that their future lies with the fast-growing mainland economy. Many live on the mainland and are working for Taiwan companies located in China. Some are even working for locally owned companies in China. The sunflower children may not care about economy, jobs and a career. But the serious-minded young people do. A progressive image of DPP The film naturally featured many remarks and speeches by Tsai Ing-wen, the current president of Taiwan. Other talking heads include her admirers and followers, even transgender cabinet ministers. The film brag that Taiwan was the first in Asia to recognize same sex marriage and protect the rights of the LGBTQ. Certainly, a show of progressive mindset that is even steps ahead of the U.S. The film also included a clip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drop in visit to Taiwan, against all advice but to the thrill of Tsai and the DPP. The most powerful woman in Washington meeting with Taiwan’s first woman president. Could not have gotten any better than this. Thank goodness, Invisible did not include the video of Tsai bestowing a beauty pageant sash on Pelosi. Also not included was any discussion on how Pelosi having stepped on the red line, greatly raised the cross-strait tension and prompted threatening hostile reaction from the PLA. But there were a lot of folks the film could have interviewed but did not. They could have interviewed the Taiwanese living and working on the mainland on their perspective of the cross-strait relations. They could have interviewed the vast majority of the people on Taiwan that prefer the status quo, neither for unification or independence. They could have asked the persons on the street on what they thought of the relations with Uncle Sam: Will the US really come to fight alongside the troops of Taiwan? How do they feel about Washington forcing the Tsai government to buy old outdated weapons? How do they feel about being forced to buy tainted pork from American farmers? What do they think of Biden’s strong arming Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing into moving their advanced chip fabs to Arizona, and then run into unforeseen labor problem, cost overrun, and construction delays? Has Biden shown any respect for Taiwan’s “sovereignty?” Taiwan is an invisible nation for a simple reason. Taiwan is not a nation but a province of China. Simple as that.