While the latest quarrel between the leaders of the United States and Ukraine in the White House has brought home to many that the US administration has a use-and-forget attitude toward those it promises to protect, Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te will seemingly be one of the last to accept that the US' "protection" is conditional on what it can get in return.

Which is apparently why he said, at the 78th anniversary of the "Feb 28 Uprising" on Friday, that the Chinese mainland is "the biggest threat" to Taiwan's so-called "sovereignty and democracy", something he vowed to defend.

The "Feb 28 Uprising" on the island happened on that date in 1947 following Kuomintang's assault on a female cigarette vendor escalated into a bloody confrontation between Taiwan residents and the KMT authorities and further an island-wide movement against the latter's rule. It's necessary to make clear that the movement has nothing to do with "Taiwan independence" that some secessionists claim.

As early as 2017, or the 70th anniversary of the incident, some witnesses had already recalled the occasion, saying that what the protesting Taiwan people sought was democracy and autonomy. They believed that the idea of "Taiwan independence" was false and absurd.

Democracy and autonomy are exactly what Lai and the secessionist-minded Democratic Progressive Party he leads are trying to deprive the 23 million people of the island of. By dedicating the island to "Taiwan independence", Lai is tying the peaceful residents there to his chariot, decreasing the possibility of peaceful national reunification.

Instead of mending historical divides and healing the wounds caused by the bloodshed 78 years ago, Lai's words that distort the "Feb 28 Uprising" and his stubborn pursuit of "Taiwan independence" only make the divide wider and prevent the scars from healing.