A recent article in the Taipei Times, headlined "Nuclear redeployment preceded US pullout" (Oct. 20, page 3), contained a big error. In the section titled "US deployment: China is our foe," the first paragraph begins: "During the 1950s, after Taiwan's military forces had been defeated by the Communists and fled to Taiwan, tensions between the two foes continued to flare up."
Although I am not an expert in Chinese/Taiwanese history, I never heard of a war between the Taiwanese military and the Communists in mainland China. I know about the government of the Republic of China fighting against the Communists, and after losing the war retreating to Taiwan.
The Communists then founded the People's Republic of China, and the government of the Republic of China, still claiming the mainland, remained in Taiwan province, in colonial fashion, using it as a base for reconquering the mainland.
Please, be accurate. The two governments in the story are the PRC, with sovereignty over the mainland provinces (with the exception of some small islands belonging to Fujian province) and the Republic of China on Taiwan, which has sovereignty only over Taiwan province, and those Fujian offshore islands. There were no "Taiwanese military forces" fighting against the Communists in China in the 1940s and 1950s. The military forces deployed in Taiwan are of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan.
It is difficult to keep news information accurate, when the country's status is so ambiguous. Is Taiwan a province of the Republic of China? If not, then what is it? Or is Taiwan a province of the People's Republic of China?
What does being Taiwanese mean in the context of the Republic of China on Taiwan?
I think the ROC government must be clear about its status and its "stateness."
Francisco Carin Garcia
Sanhsia, Taipei County
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