2001 Mission Yearbook

For Prayer & Study

As we celebrate Easter 2000, “write Mission Co-workers the Rev. Choon Lim and Yen-Hee Lim,” people in Taiwan celebrate history, a new government, and a new government, and a new president. The incumbent KMT’s [Kuomintang Party] fifty-four-year grip on power has finally been broken. Chen Shui-bian was elected as the new president. Since the General Assembly of the President Church of Taiwan (PCT) publicly supported him, many Presbyterians are thankful. Here is a brief history of Taiwan so that you may share their joy on the rebirth of democracy.

“Tradition has it that a long time ago mountain people lived in Taiwan—the island’s original inhabitants, racially and linguistically related to today’s Indonesians. Several hundred years ago, Chinese fishermen and farmers began settling along the coastal areas, but Taiwan was mostly left to its own devices until China declared it a province in 1886. Soon afterward, Japan defeated China, seized Taiwan, and held it until 1945. The only time in the twentieth century that China ruled Taiwan was from 1945, when Japan gave up the island in the aftermath of World War II, until 1949, when Chiang Kai-Shek’s KMT army was defeated by the Communists and fled to Taiwan. The KMT then ruled Taiwan until this year, when it was defeated by the Democratic Progress Party (DPP) in the presidential elections.”

There are many explanations for the KMT’s defeat, but two significant reasons came during the last half of 1999. In July then president Lee Teng-Hui said in an interview that relationship between Taiwan and China is a “state-to stare” relationship, infuriating mainland China, which still considers Taiwan a province and is very sensitive to any talk of independence. As a result, in the run-up to the elections, China claimed that it would take the election of Chen, a historical supporter of Taiwanese independence, as a hostile act, implying it might be sufficient reason to invade. This only further fanned the nationalist flames in Taiwan, where his election was felt partly as an act of defiance. The other reason came in September, when a major earthquake shook Taiwan. Many blamed the government for a response they felt was too slow and ineffective.

Scripture

Then Peter and John laid their hands on [the Samaritans], and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17)