During a speech to the Honduran legislature on Wednesday, Premier Yu Shyi-kun referred to "Taiwan, ROC" 15 times. This usage differs from conventional references to the "Republic of China" when dealing with allies, and is a considerable
improvement.
The government has a duty to cast off national baggage. By using the term "Taiwan, ROC," Yu helps the nation's allies and the governments and peoples of other countries to understand that Taiwan is now a different political entity from that which proclaimed itself the "Republic of China" under Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule.
"Taiwan, ROC" is admittedly still a peculiar title and one that does not quite reflect the political reality. But at least it underlines the country's distinctive political, economic, cultural and social
features.
Members of the international community will now know that the title refers to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu and the 23 million people who live here.
They will be less likely to confuse "Republic of China" with China. Reported confusion in Honduras over this distinction has thereby been dealt with elegantly by Yu and his delegation on their tour of the Americas.
When former president Chiang Kai-shek's (
Almost 60 years have passed since KMT rule was brought to Taiwan by the Chiang family, and today, most people have nothing to do with China beyond a limited number of businessman.
Under such circumstances, how can Taiwan possibly be a part of China? If such territorial ideas
are applied consistently, then the Republic of Mongolia, the Korean peninsula, Okinawa and even Vietnam could still be considered to be parts of Chinese territory.
Unfortunately, most countries have yielded to political pressure and have accepted this dangerous idea as the price of diplomatic ties with an increasingly desperate Beijing.
No one can deny that people on both side of the Taiwan Strait belong to two completely different countries. Taiwan has already been through three free presidential elections and, as of 2000, the KMT, which ruled Taiwan for 50 years, lost the mandate to govern.
Taiwan has become a normal democratic country in which the right to govern can change hands. Given this, Taiwan clearly needs a specific and recognizable name to announce to the international community that it is a country cultivating democracy, freedom and the rule of law.
This will also show that Taiwan has never belonged to communist China, and that there is no reason for it to be considered a regional government under the authority of China.
Irrespective of whether we refer to the nation in future as "Taiwan, ROC" or some other name, its territory, its borders and the people under its jurisdiction have absolutely nothing to do with China.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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