Truth of a sovereign nation
Thanks to Alexi Sanders’ care about Taiwan’s status and sovereignty, who concluded (Letter, Feb. 18, page 8) that relations between Taiwan and China are a domestic affair.
Unfortunately, that is not true. However, he touched on several interesting issues about Taiwan’s sovereignty, and I would like to exchange my point of view.
Sanders seems unclear on the difference between “acknowledge” and “recognize.”
In response to Lee Chapman’s petition, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “The UK acknowledges the Chinese position that Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China.” Of course the British Foreign Office abides by its recognition of the PRC as the sole legal government of China, but the UK does not agree to China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan.
Taiwan’s political status is not a Chinese domestic affair, it is an international issue. It is unfinished business started by the United States Military Government, named as the principal occupying power under the Treaty of San Francisco.
Please read carefully the US’ Taiwan policy, which has always tied in the three joint communiques with the Taiwan Relations Act .
Yes, the Chinese Civil War related to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the Republic of China (ROC) and the PRC, but it had nothing to do with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and/or Taiwan.
Since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), representing the KMT and the ROC, shook hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), head of the CCP, in November last year, the ROC and PRC are one China, and the US should now seriously focus on the Taiwan Relations Act to deal with Taiwan-US relations.
Please refer to the minutes of the UN Security Council’s 530th meeting on Nov. 30, 1950. It decisively voted nine-to-one to reject China’s complaint about a US-armed invasion of Taiwan. Neither the ROC or the PRC has had sovereignty over Taiwan since they established their nations. Sovereignty is only transferred from one legal government to another legal government under a peace treaty.
Taiwan did have its sovereignty, the last legal sovereign was Japan since 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, but Japan renounced all rights, titles and claims to Formosa and the Pescadores Islands in 1951 under the Treaty of San Francisco, which was ratified and made effective on April 28, 1952.
There is no peace treaty that authorized the transfer of sovereignty from Japan to China. There is no record showing that the ROC revised its Constitution to annex Taiwan and Penghu.
Yes, it is confusing to refer to Taiwan as the ROC or the ROC as Taiwan. While the entire world greets the nation as Taiwan, government authorities keep forcing Taiwanese to honor it as the ROC.
However, whenever a PRC envoy visits Taiwan, the ROC automatically disappears, and when Ma or former KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) meet with CCP officials, they never dare to identify themselves as representing the ROC.
To the KMT, the ROC and Taiwan are two sides of a jacket and they always abuse Taiwan’s credit to extend the survival of the ROC government in exile. What a shame.
Sovereignty is a supreme power that allows a government to freely conduct business within its territory. Where is the ROC’s territory, which includes Taiwan, China and Mongolia? What a joke.
If the ROC is still a sovereign nation, how come it was not recognized as such at the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung or the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei, even though they were held in Taiwan?
That shows the truth: Neither the ROC nor Taiwan is recognized at this time as an independent, sovereign nation.
Now president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has to be very honest and tell people that Taiwan is not part of China. If she wants Taiwan to be recognized as a nation, she has to clearly identify its legal territory and show proof of sovereignty. If she reads carefully the statement from the UK government, she would know how to work out a “status quo” to deal with China.
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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