In July of 1971, US President Nixon announced that he would be visiting the People’s Republic of China the following year. The relationship between the US and China was in the forefront of the news cycle where journalists were discussing the relationship of the US and the People’s Republic of China (China) vs the US and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Throughout all these discussions, Taiwan was never mentioned in the news. It was always a discussion between communist China and “free” China.
The World United Formosans for Independence was just formed earlier that year and they decided it was an important opportunity to educate US citizens that Taiwan was not China. In 1971, they organized a rally at the steps of the Lincoln monument where over a thousand WUFI members came from all over North America to push the cause for Taiwan independence from both the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China.
At the time, Strong C Chuang (莊秋雄) sat on the central committee of WUFI with the role of spreading the ideology of Taiwan independence.
Taiwanese Americans from Cincinnati, Ohio made this banner for this demonstration. There were 7 people that held the banner, where the first six people held T – A – I – W – A – N and the last one held this banner for Independence.
Dr David Tsai (蔡武雄) introduced a young congressional aide to Strong Chuang telling him that she was the daughter of the mayor of Baltimore, MD (Thomas D’Alesandro ). This young congressional aid was none other than Nancy Pelosi. In 1971, she was slowly working her way up the Democratic party ranks. That day, she observed the passion and righteousness of these WUFI members in front of the Lincoln monument and had discussions about 228, white terror and the aspiration of the Taiwanese people to have their own sovereign independent nation state.
Now, in 2022, when Speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan, she made a special point to visit the National Human Rights Museum. (https://www.nhrm.gov.tw/w/nhrm/index) In doing so, it shows that she remembers the stories those early Taiwan independence activists shared with her about white terror and the cost Taiwanese people paid for their freedom and democracy.
Just a human being doing his best. 