By Han Cheung / Staff reporterJan. 6 to Jan. 11Protesters from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan surrounded a police car in the afternoon of Jan. 8, 1988, after discovering a cache of wooden clubs, spears and swords inside. The churchgoers had gathered in support of Tsai Yu-chuan (蔡有全) and Hsu Tsao-te (許曹德), who were being tried for advocating Taiwanese independence at an event to celebrate the establishment of the Taiwan Political Victims Association (台灣政治受難者聯誼總會). The KMT was not happy, and essentially forced the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan to leave the WCC in 1970, presaging how Taiwan walked out of the UN when China was admitted a year later. Taiwanese independence was not yet mentioned; the church merely did not want Taiwan to be swallowed by China after losing its international clout. To him, the KMT’s insistence on the “one China” policy would only further marginalize Taiwan and lead to its eventual demise.
