This year has been designated a centennial year for Taiwan, but as the nation gears up for celebrations, Taiwanese need to examine more closely just what is it they are being asked to celebrate 100 years of.
Certainly, 1911 marked the year the Manchu Empire (aka the Qing Dynasty) and dynastic rule in China began its final descent in the Xinhai Revolution. From that, the Republic of China (ROC) was born and on Jan. 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) was inaugurated as provisional president of the new republic.
However, that was short-lived — it could be called a still birth or an abortion, since not all provinces agreed with the revolution. The following month, the dictatorial Yuan shih-kai (袁世凱) forced the abdication of the Emperor Puyi (溥儀) in a brokered deal.
Yuan forced the abdication on the condition that he replace Sun as president. He then proceeded to steamroll any semblance of democracy and by 1915 had himself declared emperor. During those years, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) attempted a second revolution for the Republic of China and it failed miserably. So what of the republic was left?
Yuan died in 1916 and the ROC then dissolved into a period of warlords where everyone, including Sun, had their supporting warlords.
Not too much to celebrate 100 years of thus far, but more to the point, where actually was Taiwan in all of this?
Taiwan was not part of any of it. One half of Taiwan was taken over by the Manchu Qing in 1682, but that half was given to Japan by those same Qing officials in 1895. By 1911, Taiwan was already developing nicely as part of the Japanese Empire.
Maybe Taiwan should celebrate being spared the chaos?
During the warlord period in China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), in true democratic fashion, eliminated the other warlords. He then sought to massacre and destroy the CCP and other parties; not quite a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
The KMT wanted a one-party state and it wanted to be that paternalistic one party. The CCP had its own one-party state vision; it resisted and thus began the Chinese Civil War.
World War II then came along, ending with the defeat of Japan, and after the war the KMT and CCP went back to their civil war. It was then that the KMT fled to Taiwan. From 1945 to 1949, the KMT denuded Taiwan of its resources in its war effort and imposed martial law.
On the continent, the KMT was too corrupt to win the people over to its side. In that war of one-party state advocates, the CCP won out and in 1949 formed the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In the meantime, on Taiwan after the 228 Incident, the KMT selectively killed off Taiwan’s elite, the well-educated and anyone else capable of creating a government to rival the KMT.
This is not the stuff that centennial celebrations are made of.
Taiwan continued to suffer. As the ROC, it lost its seat in the UN because of the stubbornness of Chiang. The Martial Law era ended in 1987 and the allowance of a dual party system, coupled with the disbanding of the Garrison Command in 1992, finally brought Taiwan’s suffering under the White Terror era to an end.
The 100 years since 1911 have too much baggage to give -Taiwanese a reason to celebrate or feel sincere about it. -Democracy came to Taiwan not because it was a gift of the KMT or its ROC, but because many Taiwanese were willing to go to jail and shed their blood for it.
That is what should be celebrated. The only thing that survives from the aborted revolution of 1911 is the name, ROC, and it is an anomaly. Taiwan may be a republic, but it is not China.
Do any Taiwanese really believe or want to celebrate the Constitution of 1947, which says their country owns China, Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkestan? I would not think so.
What year should Taiwan celebrate? If Taiwan were to choose a year it would do better to select a year like 1979, when the Kaohsiung Incident marked its protest for human rights, or 1987 when the Martial Law era ended, or 1992, when the “iron rice bowl” KMT legislators and National Assembly members selected in 1947 were forced to retire. However, best of all would be 1996, when Taiwan finally became a true democracy.
Those are the centennials that Taiwanese should look forward to.
Jerome Keating is a writer based in Taiwan.
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),
On Monday, the day before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed on her visit to China, the party released a promotional video titled “Only with peace can we ‘lie flat’” to highlight its desire to have peace across the Taiwan Strait. However, its use of the expression “lie flat” (tang ping, 躺平) drew sarcastic comments, with critics saying it sounded as if the party was “bowing down” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Amid the controversy over the opposition parties blocking proposed defense budgets, Cheng departed for China after receiving an invitation from the CCP, with a meeting with
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
RSS