Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), chanting "peace, striving and saving China," the last words of his party's founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), in Nanjing yesterday, nevertheless could not specify which China he encouraged his listeners to save.
Seen as a brave attempt to appease the anger and concerns of pro-independence Taiwanese that he may sell out Taiwan during his China trip, Lien proclaimed the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan's official name, at Sun's hilltop tomb yesterday, in a land whose government does not recognize the existence of the ROC.
"Many people challenged Lien to talk about the ROC in front of Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Lien intended to bring home to the Chinese communists the reality that although Sun's dream to unify China has not been realized, the ROC he founded still stands, said Alexander Huang (
Lien's speech in Nanjing, Huang added, addressed the biggest problem in Beijing's policy toward Taiwan, which is that leaders in Beijing never positively face the reality of the ROC's existence.
However, despite manifesting his desire for the Chinese communists to recognize the ROC, Lien avoided giving a clear definition of the current status of the ROC.
Sun, Lien said in his speech, founded "the first democratic republic in Asia, the ROC."
The KMT, which retreated to Taiwan in 1949 and continued the history of the ROC here, cited Sun's will to save China yesterday.
But which China does Lien want to save? The ROC or the People's Republic of China (PRC)? Or does Lien perhaps not consider it important to make a distinction between the two, because both contain the word "China" in their official national titles?
When Sun uttered "save China" on his deathbed in 1925, he probably was not thinking about Taiwan, then a Japanese colony.
Lien should have known as he eagerly chanted "save China" 80 years after Sun's death, that the slogan demands a clarification of what the "China" is.
It is understandable Lien does not want to offend his hosts in China, who have embraced and welcomed him in a grand manner.
"Lien remained ambiguous about the cross-strait status quo and did not make it clear that the two sides are now ruled by different governments," said Lo Chih-cheng (
Yet the KMT is not alone in remembering Sun's last words. The very words, "peace, striving and saving China," appear on the Web site of the Office of the President in Taiwan. The Web page introducing Sun says that, holding his belief to strive for peace and save China, he arrived at Peking to hold talks with the northern regional leaders on the unification of China by peaceful means in 1924, four months before his death.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift