Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) The U.S. helped make Taiwan a democratic country and it is now time for the U.S. to respect Taiwan's democracy and the will of its people, academics said in a seminar Saturday.
The seminar, which was organized by the pro-independence Taiwan Thinktank, discusses Taiwan-U.S. relations following public statements from a number of U.S. high-ranking officials that the U.S. opposes a U.N. referendum and pointing out that the status of Taiwan, or the Republic of China, remains an undecided issue as far as the U.S. is concerned.
"It's interesting to me that the U.S. pressured the former Kuomintang government to make Taiwan a democratic country for decades and that is now seems it does not want Taiwan to be 'that' democratic, " said Lo Chih-cheng, a professor at Soochow University.
"The U.S., a full democracy itself, does not understand how a democratic country like Taiwan is run. It has claimed that the referendum is merely an `election tool' but it does not understand why over 70 percent of Taiwanese people support the referendum, " Lo claimed.
"It seems to me that the U.S. government still has the mentality that as long as it controls Taiwan's leader, everything will be fine. It does not realize that when it blasted President Chen Shui-bian, it criticized 70 percent of the people of Taiwan as well, " he claimed.
The U.S. overestimates China's intentions and plans to retaliate against Taiwan's U.N. referendum and underestimates Taiwan's determination to push for the referendum, said Lin Cheng-yi, a research fellow at Academia Sinica.
Chen was correct when he said that there would be no turning back with the referendum because it is what the majority of Taiwanese want and it is his obligation to carry out the people's will, Lin said.
A long-term strategy has been lacking in Washington's Taiwan policy, as the U.S. only seeks to secure its own interests and is willing to sacrifice Taiwan, said Yen Jiann-fa, chairman of the Research and Planning Committee under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"The U.S. said it opposes the referendum, but it has not offered a viable solution for improving Taiwan's international participation, "said Yen.