Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (
To create the required conditions for such a solution, we should build a consensus on national identity, while on the other hand breaking free from the international community's unfair and absurd stance. If we can reach a certain level of consensus on the national identity issue, the international community's absurdity would be further highlighted, which might make it easier to create a breakthrough.
In the past, the dispute over Taiwan's national identity has been stuck in the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) independence-unification trap. This trap is built on a faulty premise: Taiwan is part of China. It is this erroneous premise that creates the issue of Taiwan's independence from or unification with China.
If we want to build consensus on the national identity issue, this faulty premise must be replaced with two questions.
The first question to ask is whether or not Taiwan is a part of China, or the People's Republic of China (PRC). In the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, which officially ended World War II, Japan only renounced its sovereignty over Taiwan, but it was not specified who that sovereignty should pass to -- China or the ROC. Given this fact, the Taiwanese people should at least be able to reach a minimal consensus: based on both legal principles and reality, neither China nor the ROC has sovereignty over Taiwan.
The second question to be asked is whether Taiwan is an independent nation. If Taiwan's political parties and politicians do not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, then how are they qualified to run for president or vice president?
If we can agree that Taiwan is a sovereign state and not part of China, then the issue of the nation's title becomes a bit more flexible. The campaign to correct Taiwan's national title may still be an emotional issue, but more important is the fact that China insists that the ROC has been succeeded by the PRC; as a result the ROC does not exist and is not recognized in the international community.
Whether based on legal principles or reality, the PRC has no sovereignty over Taiwan. What the PRC does have is the power to isolate Taiwan internationally in its deceitful attempts to "inherit" sovereignty over Taiwan.
The US, which directed the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan, knows very well that China has no legal claim over Taiwan but still gives in to China's blackmail. It also disregards democratic principles and demands that Taiwan not change its national title, thus placing Taiwan in an impossible situation.
Taiwan's current status is that of a sovereign and independent nation and the international community is to blame for not recognizing this fact. On the international front, Taiwan must highlight the international community's mistaken, contradictory and absurd stance.
If the US believes that maintaining the cross-strait status quo is conducive to stability, then it should recognize Taiwan's current national title. If it doesn't, Taiwan will have no choice but to create a new constitution and correct the national title in order to be able to break from the isolation created by the "two noes" and avoid being annexed by China.
Shen Chieh is a journalist based in the US. Translated by Lin Ya-ti
A nation has several pillars of national defense, among them are military strength, energy and food security, and national unity. Military strength is very much on the forefront of the debate, while several recent editorials have dealt with energy security. National unity and a sense of shared purpose — especially while a powerful, hostile state is becoming increasingly menacing — are problematic, and would continue to be until the nation’s schizophrenia is properly managed. The controversy over the past few days over former navy lieutenant commander Lu Li-shih’s (呂禮詩) usage of the term “our China” during an interview about his attendance
Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), the son of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee Politburo member and former Chongqing Municipal Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來), used his British passport to make a low-key entry into Taiwan on a flight originating in Canada. He is set to marry the granddaughter of former political heavyweight Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政), the founder of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東). Bo Xilai is a former high-ranking CCP official who was once a challenger to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the chairmanship of the CCP. That makes Bo Guagua a bona fide “third-generation red”
US president-elect Donald Trump earlier this year accused Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) of “stealing” the US chip business. He did so to have a favorable bargaining chip in negotiations with Taiwan. During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump demanded that European allies increase their military budgets — especially Germany, where US troops are stationed — and that Japan and South Korea share more of the costs for stationing US troops in their countries. He demanded that rich countries not simply enjoy the “protection” the US has provided since the end of World War II, while being stingy with
Historically, in Taiwan, and in present-day China, many people advocate the idea of a “great Chinese nation.” It is not worth arguing with extremists to say that the so-called “great Chinese nation” is a fabricated political myth rather than an academic term. Rather, they should read the following excerpt from Chinese writer Lin Yutang’s (林語堂) book My Country and My People: “It is also inevitable that I should offend many writers about China, especially my own countrymen and great patriots. These great patriots — I have nothing to do with them, for their god is not my god, and their patriotism is
RSS