Generally speaking, the course of development for a "normal country" is necessarily subject to the influence of other countries throughout history and the natural geographical environment in which it is located. The people of a "normal country" would also necessarily search for a development path most advantageous to themselves based on their own historical experience, geographical environment and self-centered perception. However, in the past 200 years of its development, Taiwan was often under alien subjugation [much of the time], making it unable to decide its own path. Even today, people born and raised on this land remain unable to clearly see the course of history on which they have trodden.
As a result, they are not blessed with the means to re-examine in depth the course of history on which the ancestors of this island have walked. The national goals and government structure are for the most part handed down from outside, rather than being the intellectual products of the people of this soil and tailored to meet their own needs. The residents of this land have apparently grown accustomed to the way in which foreign powers have decided their own ways of life.
Even today, two years after a democratic transfer of political power, people have not become masters of their own lives. They still do not shoulder the responsibilities they ought to shoulder, nor may they ponder the country's future direction, nor have they bravely faced up to challenges of self-rule. They haven't had the chance to pursue their ideals based on their own will to power. The emergence and development of countries should not always be tied down by the past. But they certainly cannot depart entirely from the strictures of time and space. To get to know the history of one's country and then to embark on a search for one's identity toward the future is often the source of momentum for growth by a country and a people. Taiwan cannot become a "normal country" because it cannot face up to its own history and establish a Taiwan-based raison d'etre.
Taiwan in its own right
Surely everyone knows very well that in the past KMT era our education on the history and mission of Taiwan remained focused on Taiwan being an "operational point," a "springboard," and a "base" for others. Very few people have given credence to the value of Taiwan in its own right and how we may become our own masters. Nor have people had the opportunity to ponder ways to search for structures, systems and development plans suitable for this land. When the Dutch came, Taiwan played the role of an operational point for trade between the Dutch and the Chinese coastal area. General Zheng Chenggong (鄭成功) drove away the Dutch, so that Taiwan could serve as the base to "overturn the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty (反清復明)." After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan. At the time, the short-lived "Taiwan Republic" even lamented "having no master to depend on (無主可依)." After Japan took over Taiwan, it also treated Taiwan as a vassal colony and a springboard for the creation of "the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (大東亞共榮圈)."After the Japanese defeat in 1945, the KMT government took over Taiwan, and then in 1949 retreated to Taiwan for safety. The KMT merely saw Taiwan as a base from which it sought to retake all of China.
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