Taiwan is not a member of the WHO, and to be able to attend the World Health Administration, it must rely on the goodwill of China. The reason for this is Taiwan’s China problem.
Key to Taiwan’s China problem is the “Chineseness” of the Republic of China (ROC), which needs to be sorted out. Prior to 1971, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, which brought the ROC to Taiwan, claimed that it represented China. In 1949, it was exiled to Taiwan, where it said that it would reconquer “the mainland” and liberate its Chinese compatriots, using the rhetoric as an excuse to dominate Taiwan through martial law.
In 1971, UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 expelled “the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek [蔣介石]” and recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as “the only lawful representative of China to the UN.”
From that moment on, the ROC in Taiwan, which the KMT clung to, saw the conditions for its continuing existence in the international community gradually slip away, and it had to muddle through as the “ROC on Taiwan” or the “ROC, Taiwan” as it tried to deal with the PRC’s forced designation of “Chinese Taipei” or “Taipei, China.” Even after the direct, popular presidential election of 1996, Taiwan failed to establish itself as a nation independent of China.
The PRC succeeded the ROC, and according to this logic, it also inherited the right to represent China in the UN. Until the moment it was expelled from the UN, the KMT stubbornly stuck to the fiction that it represented China with the result that Taiwan, a political entity that had been occupied by the KMT, had to carry the burden of becoming the target of the PRC’s incomplete revolution. Even though Taiwan is moving toward non-KMT rule, it still cannot extricate itself from the shackles of the KMT.
The new political reality that the KMT has to face after losing its monopoly on power is to join hands with the PRC to control Taiwan. During the eight years of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration, the ruling party was in a minority position in the legislature, which was controlled by the KMT that kept blocking the government’s policies.
President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her administration are to take over the Executive Yuan while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds a majority in the legislature. Therefore, it has the upper hand in both the central and most local governments, which only makes China’s attempts to put pressure on Taiwan even more obvious.
In particular, since the KMT is at risk of losing all public support and is close to collapse, it is almost forced to look to China and work with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). If Taiwan really wants to rebuild itself as a nation, it must abandon the KMT’s delusional claim that it represents China and the 23 million Taiwanese who have formed a shared community of their own should return China to China and recognize that the PRC represents China.
There is only one China and that is the PRC. Let there be no more talk about “one China, different interpretations.” Their interpretation is not for Taiwan.
It is only by recognizing this that the Taiwanese public would be able to put an end to this history. This is the only way to let China unite within itself and let Taiwan start a new life.
Taiwan should leave the China bog behind and let the world know about it. It should tell the UN that it wants to join the organization as a regular member state, stop laying claim to China’s sovereignty and engage in friendly and peaceful relations with all its friends in the international community.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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