Since Oct. 1, 1949, the “Republic of China” (ROC) has existed as a vestigial and imaginary China that has been able to survive in exile in Taiwan only because it took the island over and occupied it on behalf of the Allies following the end of World War II. It continues to rule Taiwan, which in the past it saw as a base for launching a counterattack against the Chinese Communist Party, with the attitude of an “other,” and it has never really got accustomed to the democratic developments that have taken place.
In 1971, the “ROC” on Taiwan was kicked out of the UN, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) took over the permanent seat that the “ROC” had occupied on the UN Security Council. Then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) preferred to lose the nation’s UN member status rather than remain in the UN as an ordinary member representing only Taiwan. Taiwan’s present-day problems surrounding its status and the conditions of its continued existence in the international community arose from Chiang’s deluded insistence that “gentlemen and bandits cannot coexist” and the selfish interests of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) party-state apparatus.
Taiwan’s situation differs from that of the two Germanys that existed before German unification, when the Federal Republic of Germany — West Germany — and the German Democratic Republic — East Germany — both had seats in the UN. The Republic of Korea — South Korea — and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — North Korea — also both have seats in the UN, and this two-state setup has not detracted from their national identity as Koreans. However, Chiang dropped the ball at a critical moment, turning his “ROC” into a lame duck.
The PRC’s rise to power has come to pass since it joined the UN and took over the permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The reason why the “ROC” in Taiwan keeps getting elbowed aside by the PRC, often even bowing down in submission, and why it has gone from opposing communism to being friendly and surrendering to the Chinese Communist Party, is the mess that Chiang left for his successors in the KMT, and Taiwan as a whole is also suffering the consequences.
If the “ROC” in Taiwan had dropped its Chinese Constitution and adjusted its national conditions to conform with those of a normal country, it might have been able to remain in the UN, and today, faced with the rise of the PRC, it might have state-to-state relations and even exchange ambassadors with it. The problems left over from the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists might have been resolved long ago, so that the two sides would no longer have to waste so much of their national budgets on deploying troops to confront one another. The erroneous ideas of a former dictator needlessly left the legacy of historical conundrums that Taiwanese still face today. It is ironic that statues of that dictator are still to be seen mounted like idols at many road intersections and on many school and college campuses. Such is the toxic legacy of Chiang’s party-state.
The artillery bombardments of Kinmen and Matsu during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958 were a way for Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) to use those offshore islands of Fujian Province to connect with the exiled “ROC” in Taiwan, and once that was achieved he responded with a ceasefire. The “ROC’s” Constitution retained its ideological links with China. These links are Chinese knots with which the PRC keeps Taiwan in bondage, and will continue to do so until it obliterates the “ROC.”
Former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) slavish actions that express his attachment to China, despite being urged not to do so, highlight the sickness of the “ROC” and its ruling party, the KMT. To achieve political reform and build itself anew, Taiwan must overcome the obstacles presented by these knots. The KMT’s “ROC” depends on these webs, but Taiwan cannot live with them. What Taiwan needs is a new, Taiwanese national outlook.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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