November 24, 2011

On November 24th Su Beng went to pay his respects to Ong Jiao-Dong, the President of the United Formosans for Independence. Mr. Ong was also the founder of the Taiwan Youth Association in Japan which published the Taiwan Youth magazine.









An article written (in Chinese)about his visit recently appeared on MSN here.

In this article Su Beng is quoted saying that Mr. Ong dedicated about 50-60 years of his life to the Taiwan independence movement and that there are probably about only about 5 others like him, still alive, who have dedicated their lives to the cause.

He also said that the overseas Taiwan independence movement first started in Japan in the 1950s where a provisional government of the Republic of Taiwan was formed. Around that time, Mr. Ong founded the Taiwan Youth Association, which was a precursor to the United Formosans for Independence. Later he and someone else formed the Taiwan Youth Magazine. In 1959 Su Beng was asked to work with them on the Taiwan Youth Magazine. The magazine helped spread the Taiwan independence movement from Japan to the U.S.

Su Beng described Mr. Ong was an open-minded man. Su Beng admitted that while the two of them had different opinions and used different strategies, they were both working toward the same goal, which was independence for Taiwan.

The author of the article asked Su Beng: As the elders of the Taiwan independence movement pass away will the Taiwan independence movement lose its roots or direction?

Su Beng's response was that he doesn't think so, as long as the island of Taiwan exists and the people of Taiwan still have their will, it will continue. Though Su Beng said that he may one day soon join Mr. Ong up above, the Taiwan independence movement will not just disappear.