A leaked US diplomatic cable shows that Chinese academics praised President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) use of zhonghua minzu to describe the “Chinese nation,” adding that Beijing had also adopted the formulation instead of “one China.”
Zhou Zhihuai (周志懷), vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Taiwan Studies, made the point at the US embassy in Beijing during a meeting on Aug. 20, 2008, according to a cable dated the following day and released by WikiLeaks, along with thousands of others, on Aug. 30.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has been “compromising and yielding” on Taiwan and “the attitude has permeated China’s approach” to Taiwan during its presidential election in 2008 and “has been reciprocated by Ma,” the cable quotes Zhou as saying.
“China is not insisting that the [so-called] ‘92 consensus’ is founded on the ‘one China principle’ and Ma is no longer pushing for ‘respective interpretations,’” he said.
“The Mainland [China] has also adopted the formulation of the ‘Chinese nation’ (zhonghua minzu) as opposed to ‘one China,’” the cable quoted Zhou as saying.
Ma used the phrase in his inaugural speech, in which he said he believed that people in Taiwan and China have the wisdom to find solutions to live in peace.
In his inauguration address, Ma said he believed that in light of the wisdom of zhonghua minzu, Taiwan and China would surely find ways to live in peace and prosperity.
Zhonghua minzu is generally translated as meaning “Chinese nation,” but the official English translation of Ma’s inaugural speech said “in light of our common Chinese heritage.”
Another cable, dated June 2, 2008, from the US consulate in Shanghai showed Yang Jiemian (楊潔勉), then-president of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, and its vice president, Chen Dongxiao (陳東曉), telling visiting US Department of State official David Shear that Ma’s inaugural speech was a positive response to Hu’s 16-character prescription for cross-strait relations.
Ma’s inaugural speech was favorably received in China and one of the reasons was that “Ma had spoken about the Chinese people (zhonghua minzu) rather than use a term like ‘compatriots’ in discussing the Chinese in the mainland [China],” said the cable, which recorded the meeting with Shear.
Hu coined a 16-character guideline for cross-strait relations when he met vice-president elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) on April 29, 2008, at the Boao Forum. The guidelines called for “building mutual trust, shelving controversies, finding commonalities despite differences and creating together a win-win solution.”
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) registered concerns highlighted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the phrase in another cable dated June 6, 2008, when AIT officials met Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Lin Chen-wei (林成蔚), both attending to the party’s international affairs.
At the meeting, Hsiao voiced reservations about Ma’s use of the term “Chinese nation (zhonghua minzu), a term which, in her opinion, the KMT had inaccurately translated into English as ‘common Chinese heritage,’” the cable said.
Beijing is grateful to Ma for using “Chinese nation,” which has now become popular in China, Hsiao said. “For Beijing, Lin observed, ‘Chinese nation’ applies to all inhabitants within its territory, including minorities. However, there is no consensus about this term within Taiwan.”
“For example, the DPP objects to the concept, and ‘Chinese nation’ clearly does not include Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. Ma’s use of ‘Chinese nation’ will gradually become an issue in Taiwan, producing resistance to the term, Lin predicted,” the cable said.
Frank Jannuzi, a then-senior staff member at the AIT, said “Ma had used the word ‘minzu,’ which means ‘nation’ in the sense of ‘nationality,’ which is different than the Chinese word for state (guojia), the cable showed.
A cable dated June 2, 2008, from the US consulate Shanghai, quoted Shen Dingli (沈丁立), director of the American Studies Center at Fudan University in Shanghai, as saying that Chinese academics were “thrilled” that Ma had used the phrase “Chinese nation” (zhonghua minzu) in his inaugural address.
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