Nancy Pelosi and Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文 stand side by side in front of a framed portrait of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen 孙中山. Courtesy/Zhen Huang
By ZHEN HUANG
Los Alamos
At a time when most of the eastern part of China have been covered by record-breaking heat waves and are in dire need of landing typhoons to bring plenty of rainstorms to cool down the heated atmosphere, the Taiwan Strait is disturbed by a “political typhoon” originated from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taipei visit.
Such a political typhoon seems to have caused increased concerns about military conflict between mainland China and island Taiwan that might escalate to a potential Chinese Civil War II.
However, when I saw this photograph in which Pelosi and Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文 stood side by side in front of a framed portrait of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen 孙中山, I wanted to send a Thank You note to Pelosi for her efforts to unite Chinese people across the Taiwan Strait.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen is the founding father of China. In “the Bluebook of Building a Great China” 建国方略 published in 1920, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen proposed to build 100,000 miles of railroads and one million miles of highways. A century later, Chinese people can proudly tell our founding father Dr. Sun Yat-Sen that we have achieved and surpassed such great goals. As of 2021, China’s total length of railroad has reached 150,000 km. As of April 2022, the total length of China’s highways has reached 5.28 million km.
Recent years, architects across the Taiwan Strait have started to discuss plans to develop undersea highways connecting mainland China and island Taiwan. Not long ago, the Mayor of the City of Taipei, Ke Wen Zhe 柯文哲, proposed to build a Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge 金厦大桥 that connects the City of XiaMen and island KinMen.
Given that Pelosi is an elected Congress official representing the great San Francisco area, an area where the Chinese-American population ranks among the top three in the United States, an area where there is rich history of earlier Chinese immigrants who made great contributions to construct the Pacific Railroad, I believe that Pelosi is in a perfect position to support such a great proposal of building a Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge to show US Congressional appreciation for the historic contributions of Chinese-Americans.
San Francisco is my most-visited city. My must-see historic spots include the central portal sign “the World, the People” 天下为公 by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen over the Chinatown Ceremonial Gate, and Ellis Island that carries sad stories of the earlier Chinese immigrants over a century ago. In fact, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen was among those who suffered from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. In 1904, he was detained for 17 days at San Francisco Port of Entry, and was denied entry then deported to Hawaii because of the adverse impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act …
I believe that Dr. Sun Yat-Sen would be thrilled to see a united railway of Great China if he could see from Heaven.
San Francisco is special to me because it always made me feel like I was in my hometown whenever I visited it. In particular, its iconic Golden Gate Bridge always remind me of the QianTang River Bridge 钱塘江大桥.
The other day, while my architect mother and I were watching the sad news that the longest bridge in Ukraine might be blown out by “self-destruction”, we chatted about the QianTang River Bridge.
QianTang River Bridge is a China’s national treasure designed by architect Mao Yi Sheng 茅以升. It is the first dual-purpose road-and-railway bridge. It opened in the year of 1937; the same year Golden Gate Bridge was opened. It witnessed the destructive impacts of the Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. It carries an unforgettable chapter in Chinese History.
At the time when QianTang River Bridge opened, the Sino-Japanese War, World War II in China, started raging toward the City of Hangzhou. The nearby City of Shanghai had already been occupied by the imperial Japanese Army invaders. Millions of citizens of Hangzhou and nearby towns were evacuated via the newly built QianTang River Bridge to escape the Japanese bombings.
The Hangzhou citizens would never forget that the QianTang River Bridge was blown up on its 89th day of opening to deter the Japanese invasion by “self-destruction”, blasting of one of the underwater piers that was reserved for easy demolish purpose when the bridge was designed.
The QianTang River Bridge was blown up the second time right before the Nationalist army retreated to island Taiwan in 1949. This time was also a “self-destruction” but was the Nationalist army to deter the Communist army’s advancement by the US-supported aerial bombing.
I found it very interesting that my mother refers the second time 1949 QianTang River Bridget’s blown out as “US Bombing”, whereas it was clearly “self-destruction” at the hands of us Chinese. It has provoked my pondering on its logic discrepancy and its psychological implications for the so-called Taiwan independence or China reunification issue.
I asked myself a question, what has prevented a Chinese Civil War II from happening for such a long time that has lasted more than 7 decades? Why had the Nationalist China Leader Mr. Jiang Zhongzhen 蒋中正 opposed three times the tentative US plans of using nuclear bombings to destroy Communist China controlled cities?
While I found it complicated to answer, my mother referred me to a classic poem about brotherhood that every Chinese kid can recite at a very early age and recall throughout our lifetime. It is all about Chinese Culture and Chinese History that we have shared over thousands of years. The brotherhood bond between mainland Chinese and Taiwan Chinese is so strong that any alien forces can never break it off. The only danger for potential Chinese Civil War II to happen is when we ourselves have abandoned our Culture and forgotten our history.
That is why I wanted to thank the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her efforts in promoting Chinese Culture and reminding us of Chinese History by making a pose in front of our founding father Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.
I wish Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge will be built to unite Chinese People across the Taiwan Strait. I wish the Golden Gate Bridge, the QianTang River Bridge, as well as all the bridges in the world, will never be blown out.
