BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities’ latest word games with Taiwan’s demographic data have exposed their obsession with severing the historical and cultural ties between the island and the Chinese mainland.
Earlier this month, Taiwan’s executive body revised information on the island’s demographics on its official website, stating that Taiwan’s current registered population is composed of 2.6 percent indigenous residents, 1.2 percent immigrants, and 96.2 percent "the others."
By replacing the classification term "Han people" with "the others," the revision erased explicit recognition of the Han people -- Taiwan’s largest ethnic group, which has been the island’s majority for centuries. The ethnic Han people also constitute the majority of the population on the mainland.
This change in wording has been met with overwhelming criticism in mainstream public opinion on the island, with many saying the DPP authorities have "lost their minds" or mocking their attempt to eradicate the identities of over 20 million ethnic Han people with a few clicks of the keyboard.
Faced with widespread ridicule, Taiwan’s executive body has attempted to justify its sophistry by absurdly resorting to the pretext of "promoting ethnic equality." However, it only further exposes the grand scheme concealed behind such petty political trickery.
The DPP has been making absurd moves in Taiwan’s cultural sector for some time, from misinterpreting Chinese history textbook content and slashing classical Chinese literature masterpieces from curricula to defaming cross-Strait exchange. All these actions have aimed to erase the Chinese cultural presence in Taiwan and weaken local people’s identification with the Chinese nation and culture, and, ultimately, to build a historical and cultural perspective that facilitates "Taiwan independence."
To that end, the DPP has gone to great lengths to deny the ancestry of the majority of people on the island, including many of its own members.
However, the Han people in Taiwan have never forgotten where they came from, and their understanding that they share their bloodline with the mainland has never faded. Many localities in Taiwan still use names revealing their connections with the mainland, and a great number of people visit their ancestral homes on the mainland and pay their respects to their ancestors during traditional festivals.
By weakening the understanding of the Chinese nation and culture among Taiwan people, the DPP is attempting to pave the way for its "Taiwan independence" goal -- even at the expense of the island’s heritage.
These word games may work for a while, but they can never shake the Chinese culture that has taken deep root in Taiwan, nor can they stop compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait from passing on their shared cultural heritage.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0516/c90000-20315729.html