As transitional justice in Taiwan progresses, as statues of dictators are removed and monuments to their oppressive rule renamed, there is a whole other area of name rectification to be considered.
Having the historical distinction of being the former colony of more than one nation, Taiwan has inherited a difficulty in the naming of formal administrative divisions of national and local government.
During the time of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) military dictatorship, Taiwan had the burden of a provincial and national government governing the same territory -- functions and positions duplicated -- to project the fiction that the KMT governed all of China.
Now that Taiwan's "provincial government" has been removed, we have the strange situation in which there is a national government and then cities and designated "counties," which are by definition subdivisions of a non-existent regional government.
As with the name "Republic of China," the current names of administrative regions tend to confuse foreign countries.
Cities can readily make commercial and cultural agreements with other cities around the world and have done so.
But should Ilan County make an agreement with a US county (with populations sometimes smaller than Taiwanese townships) or a US state? Taiwan's counties, though not wholly analogous, are closer on the spectrum to the latter division.
In the US there are national, state and local tiers of government. The absence of the intermediate level in Taiwan would tend to make foreigners think that the national government is itself intermediate; that is, the province or confederated state of some "Greater China."
To address this problem while on the campaign trail last year, Vice President Annette Lu (
But with Taiwan's size, all of this still seems to add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
And the arbitrary addition of provinces in name only, which seem too small compared with those of other countries, would give the impression that Taiwan was "pretending" to have provinces, just like in the past the KMT regime "pretended" to govern China and "pretended" that Taiwan was just a province.
Besides, in the context of Taiwanese history, the idea of a province is just too reminiscent of the Chinese empire and colonialism in general.
Here is one alternate proposal: Taiwan should model its structure on Switzerland.
Change the "county" designation to "canton." In explanation, have books make the comparison thus: "Like Switzerland, Taiwan is made up of regional administrative divisions called cantons."
That one short phrase, "like Switzerland," could make a huge stride forward in how the world perceives Taiwan.
Like Switzerland, Taiwan is multilingual. Like Switzerland, Taiwan has had to maintain itself against aggressive and larger neighbors over the centuries.
Like Taiwan, Switzerland had to face a time of de facto independence from a large empire (beginning in 1499 from the Holy Roman Empire). Switzerland was finally recognized by other countries as independent in 1648 in the Treaty of Westphalia. Hopefully, unlike Switzerland, Taiwan will not have to wait that long.
Like the Swiss, Taiwanese would like nothing more than to be neutral, at peace with their neighbors and respected as a sovereign nation.
But whereas Switzerland is a host to the UN, the UN has refused to play host to Taiwan. This, too, needs to be rectified.
Joel Linton
Taipei
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS