Taipei, July 21 (CNA) Taiwan's normalization has been and will continue to be a difficult task, Taiwan independence advocates said in a seminar Saturday, urging ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh to pay more attention to the issue.
"Taiwan is already a de facto sovereign state, but its status as a normal state has not been achieved yet, " said Chen Lung-chu, president of the pro-independence Taiwan New Century Foundation, in the seminar titled "Psychological Construction of Taiwan's Normalization as a State."
To be a normal state, Taiwan needs to work on a full-scale name-change campaign, adopt a new constitution and participate in international organizations such as the United Nations under the name of Taiwan, said Chen.
"Frank Hsieh has not made enough effort. We encourage him to pay more attention to the issue, " said Michelle Wang, vice president of the pro-independence group Taiwan Society North.
The main resistance to the campaign comes from China and the United States, Wang claimed, adding that the U.S.'s Taiwan policy between 1945 and 2000 has focused on "controlling the Taiwan president."
"The U.S. did not care about the people of Taiwan. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the CIA did not say a word to the then-ruling Kuomintang (KMT) government during the White Terror era, " she said, adding that the U.S. did not change its attitude on Taiwan until after the 2000 presidential election because "the people of Taiwan had spoken."
Lee Min-yung, a well-known Taiwanese poet, said Taiwan should be a sovereign state that embraces human rights.
"More importantly, we want to have a small but beautiful country. We want Taiwan to be a welfare state. And Taiwan should be a state that is not only built upon its own unique culture but also blessed with a well-educated culturati, " he said.
"It's a pity that modern day Taiwanese have been fettered by materialism, " he added.