The 'USA Taiwan Government' Occupies Taiwan's Provincial Government Building

In the afternoon of July 7 two tourist coaches took around 200 supporters of the USA Taiwan Government (UTG, Chinese: 美國台灣政府) to the seat of the Taiwan Provincial Government located in Zhongxing Xincun (中興新村) in Nantou County. The leader of the UTG, Cai Mingfa (蔡明法), and his followers entered the building through the toilet and occupied it. They raised a banner of the UTG in the office of the Governor of Taiwan Province, Lin Zhengze (林政則), who was in Yilan that day.

Cai Mingfa declared: "We should not allow the government-in-exile of the Republic of China (流亡的中華民國政府) to use illegal and violent methods against the Taiwanese people. We urge the Taiwanese people to regain possession of their own rights."

The UTG was founded on April 25, 2013, in Washington DC by Cai Mingfa, a 58-year-old native of Guanmiao District (關廟區), Tainan City. He lived in the USA for 11 years and has an American passport.

The UTG believes that the legal status of Taiwan after World War II was never determined in favour of the Republic of China (ROC), and that the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty as well as the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty of 1952 do not explicitly state that Taiwan is part of the ROC. They therefore believe that Taiwan is still under the occupation of the United States, and that the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act sanctions Washington's military protection of the island. The UTG has 2000 members.

Taiwan Provincial Government building in Zhongxing Xincun (source: Wikipedia)

The UTG has already organised actions to spread its ideas. For example, in November 2013 UTG activists drove a truck to the Guomindang congress building and shouted slogans such as "The Republic of China is already dead!".

The occupation of the seat of the Taiwan Provincial Government has a strong symbolic meaning, as the institution reflects the Guomindang and ROC one-China principle, according to which Taiwan is part of China and the ROC is China's legitimate government.

700 policemen were dispatched to clear the Taiwan Provincial Government building. Due to the old age of the activists (averaging 60-70) the police tried to convince them to vacate the building voluntarily, but without success. At around 8 pm the police entered and forced the protesters to leave. However, they have remained outside the building and continue to hold sit-ins there.

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