Los Angeles vigil for Taiwan independence creates stir outside federal building
The people and banners have doubled since the weekly vigils outside the Los Angeles federal building began earlier this year. Talking to pedestrians, hand-billing stopped motorists, waving signs and shouting, two dozen loyal Taiwan supporters gather in any kind of weather to take their message to the street.
The flags and signs tell passers-by that Taiwan remains a United States responsibility until a freely chosen Taiwanese civil government can be established on the island. Presently, Taiwan is controlled by the Republic of China in-exile, landed on the island by U.S. military forces at the end of World War II.
The Los Angeles petitioners argue that the San Francisco Peace Treaty, where Japan gave up Taiwan, left the United States in charge of Taiwan's fate instead of the Republic of China, which was not a signatory to the treaty.
The Cold War and Communist revolution in China followed by the Korean War and then the Vietnam War kept Taiwan's legal status, a "strategic ambiguity", in limbo to the present time.
Last year the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals called the people of Taiwan "stateless" and caught in "political purgatory" urging President Barack Obama to act "expeditiously" to resolve the status. The United States does not recognize Taiwan, Taiwan is barred from the United Nations and even kept out of the World Health Organization.
Because the Republic of China is an exiled government, forced from China in 1949 during the Communist revolution and imposed on the people of Taiwan, the islanders have never had a chance to decide their own form of government.
Since President Obama has not acted on the federal appellate court's request, the vigil petitioners show up each week at the Los Angeles federal building to inform the public about Taiwan.
One of the newest petitioners is the oldest, at 97 years-old. The other demonstrators lovingly call her Grandma while she does her part.
Bad weather does not stop the vigil as the petitioners don rain gear and keep talking and holding their signs. The vigil goes on.
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