TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Following complaints of food shortages from frontline troops stationed in Matsu, Taiwan politician and former DPP heavyweight Shih Ming-teh (施明德) has reiterated his call on the government for immediate demilitarization of the outlying Taiwan islands of Kinmen and Matsu.
He said the two islands’ defense commands only exist to benefit senior military leaders.
Shih made the comments on Monday (March 6) in a social media post following news the army was struggling to supply fresh food to the soldiers stationed in Matsu. He said the troops being stationed there was pointless.
He added that everyone knows Kinmen people get their daily necessities and food from the Chinese city of Xiamen, which is just 5 kilometers away at the nearest point.
“I advocate a complete withdrawal of troops to remove the most likely thing to cause a conflict on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and offer China the most meaningful olive branch in the past 70 years,” Shih posted on Facebook.
He added that turning what was now the “small war zone” of Matsu and Kinmen into a zone of peace would ensure mutual respect, equality, and peaceful coexistence.
Shih blasted politicians and generals who he said support the militarization of the islands "out of self-interest," rather than being rational.
"It is making the remote islands vulnerable to enemy invasion and the ill-motivated politicians or generals would profit if there was a conflict between the U.S. and China," he said.
He noted that even though the number of troops on Kinmen and Matsu has been massively reduced over the years, two large defense commands for the islands still exist.
Soldiers made headlines on Monday after they wrote messages in the sand of a Matsu beach complaining about the lack of fresh food.
In February, a bipartisan group of Kinmen legislators submitted a petition to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also calling for the island’s permanent demilitarization. They cited concern over mounting tensions between China, Taiwan, and the U.S.
The legislators said they did not want history to repeat itself, referencing the heavy shelling endured over the course of two Taiwan Strait crises throughout the 1950s.
Shih said that he had discussed the issue with legislators last month, and that he hopes to report to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文）what was discussed.
“I saw that members of the Kinmen Council, regardless of party affiliation, have put forward a call for a ‘Kinmen Permanent Demilitarized Zone,’ hoping to get rid of the threat of war, engage in regional exchanges, and improve their living standards,” he said.
Shih is a major figure in Taiwan’s current and historical political landscape. He was an early champion of the Tangwai movement, which was the first in Taiwan to challenge the Kuomintang’s military dictatorship.
Shih spent a total of 25 years in prison as a political prisoner between 1962 and 1990, and was elected to the legislature for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan’s first-ever free elections in 1992. He became the chair of the DPP in the mid-1990s, and in 2006 led a large anti-government corruption campaign.
