The Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) recently published a 36-volume work on the history of the Republic of China (ROC).
The CASS, China’s highest research organization in the fields of philosophy and social sciences, spent 30 years compiling and writing the collection.
As the work does not touch on the sensitive issue of the ROC’s continued existence in Taiwan, China’s netizens have questioned the legitimacy and value of the collection, Taiwanese media reported on Wednesday.
“The ROC remains alive and vibrant on the opposite side of the Taiwan Strait, why would the CASS bother to compile its history?” one netizen asked.
People’s Daily Online – the Web site of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — reported that late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) ordered the work on ROC history as early as 1971.
At that time, China was embroiled in the Cultural Revolution and many political figures opposed the idea, questioning why they should waste time documenting the history of a “reactionary ruling class.”
The first volume of the CASS ROC history was published in 1981 and the whole collection, comprising 16 books on ROC history, a 12-books chronology of events that occurred under the ROC and eight volumes offering detailed biographies of key figures, was released earlier this month.
The work deals with many sensitive and complicated issues such as relations between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the CCP during the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945). It also gives a relatively objective assessment of late ROC president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) contributions to China.
The KMT led the Hsinhai revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and established Asia’s first republic — the Republic of China. The ROC ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it lost a civil war to the CCP.
Although the CCP has since replaced the KMT as China’s ruling party, the ROC has continued to exist in Taiwan and has transformed from a KMT-dominated authoritarian regime into a pluralistic democracy.
None of the CASS-compiled volumes mention the ROC’s development in Taiwan after 1949.
Many Chinese netizens have used microblogs in recent days to criticize the compilation of the work because the ROC’s existence remains a fact of life, not history.
CASS Institute of Modern History deputy director Wang Chaoguang (汪朝光) said the work recognized the KMT’s contributions in the war against Japan and gave a more balanced and objective judgment of Chiang’s role in modern Chinese history, a major difference from earlier works that have tended to characterize Chiang as a corrupt dictator.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard