After adding the word "Taiwan" to the Presidential Office's Web site last week, President Chen Shui-bian (
Because the name ROC includes the word "republic," it is easily mistaken to mean that the ROC is a state.
However, the name ROC initially symbolized a government or a dynasty, and it was also the official name for China.
After the People's Republic of China (PRC) replaced the ROC as the ruler of China, the only remaining meaning was "government," with the other meanings being supplanted by the PRC. This now means that the PRC is China and China is the PRC.
The ROC only remains as the government's name and its organization. It no longer has the original sense of "state."
Chen is being polite when he describes the second stage of his theory as the ROC "moving" to Taiwan, when it in fact was exiled here and proceeded to -- without passing through any democratic or legal procedures -- begin to occupy Taiwan and Penghu after Japan gave up its claims in a treaty.
In 1971, the UN decided to expel the delegate representing president Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) regime and proclaimed that the PRC was the legitimate representative of China. Afterward, Chiang's son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) began implementing limited localization and promotion of Taiwanese. Taiwan was thus used to fill the empty ROC shell, and the ROC began its transformation toward becoming Taiwan.
Former president Lee Teng-hui's (
In 1999, Lee proposed his "special state to state" model for cross-strait relations, clearly defining the ROC as a "state" rather than a "government." Since both the PRC and the ROC are states, with neither having any jurisdiction over the other, this is clearly a matter of two different countries.
A majority in the international community do not recognize the ROC because they do not view it as a state, but rather as the name of a government that has been replaced by the PRC. If the national title remains unchanged and if we want to maintain that Taiwan or the ROC is a sovereign state, there are only two approaches to altering the definition of the ROC.
First, that Taiwan is a sovereign state whose national title is the ROC. Second, that the ROC is a sovereign state whose territory is limited to the Taiwan region and the sovereignty belongs to the 23 million Taiwanese.
Chen's four-stage theory defines the ROC as a state, but in using territory and population to define the scope of this state, he makes the ROC Taiwan. This is in response to the fact that while the national title "ROC" cannot be altered at this stage, most people believe that Taiwan is a sovereign state. Since any sudden change is impossible, this is a necessary and natural development.
Shen Chieh is a political commentator based in Washington.
Translated by Daniel Cheng
On Sunday, 13 new urgent care centers (UCC) officially began operations across the six special municipalities. The purpose of the centers — which are open from 8am to midnight on Sundays and national holidays — is to reduce congestion in hospital emergency rooms, especially during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year. It remains to be seen how effective these centers would be. For one, it is difficult for people to judge for themselves whether their condition warrants visiting a major hospital or a UCC — long-term public education and health promotions are necessary. Second, many emergency departments acknowledge
US President Donald Trump’s seemingly throwaway “Taiwan is Taiwan” statement has been appearing in headlines all over the media. Although it appears to have been made in passing, the comment nevertheless reveals something about Trump’s views and his understanding of Taiwan’s situation. In line with the Taiwan Relations Act, the US and Taiwan enjoy unofficial, but close economic, cultural and national defense ties. They lack official diplomatic relations, but maintain a partnership based on shared democratic values and strategic alignment. Excluding China, Taiwan maintains a level of diplomatic relations, official or otherwise, with many nations worldwide. It can be said that
Victory in conflict requires mastery of two “balances”: First, the balance of power, and second, the balance of error, or making sure that you do not make the most mistakes, thus helping your enemy’s victory. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has made a decisive and potentially fatal error by making an enemy of the Jewish Nation, centered today in the State of Israel but historically one of the great civilizations extending back at least 3,000 years. Mind you, no Israeli leader has ever publicly declared that “China is our enemy,” but on October 28, 2025, self-described Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP) propaganda
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) made the astonishing assertion during an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle, published on Friday last week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a dictator. She also essentially absolved Putin of blame for initiating the war in Ukraine. Commentators have since listed the reasons that Cheng’s assertion was not only absurd, but bordered on dangerous. Her claim is certainly absurd to the extent that there is no need to discuss the substance of it: It would be far more useful to assess what drove her to make the point and stick so
RSS