Taiwan not part of ROC or PRC
As a Taiwanese, I believe we are all frustrated about gaining UN membership. Why can’t Taiwan be accepted as a UN member? According to the UN Charter, its membership is open to all peace-loving states.
Is Taiwan a nation? Yes, of course Taiwan has all the elements of a nation: a government, a military and an elected president.
However, if we look more into the details — such as: When was it established? Does Taiwan have state sovereignty? Is there a Taiwan Constitution? — we are tongue-tied.
There are different answers to these questions. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will tell you that Taiwan is part of the Republic of China (ROC).
The major opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will tell you Taiwan is the ROC and the ROC is Taiwan.
Some of the Taiwanese independence groups will tell you that Taiwan is an independent nation and its name is ROC at this time.
Some groups will tell you that Taiwan is not yet a nation.
As for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it will always say that Taiwan is part of China.
Is Taiwan part of China, or is it part of the ROC? What is the relationship between Taiwan and China?
The KMT has occupied Taiwan since the end of World War II and brainwashed Taiwanese that they are Chinese and that Taiwan is part of China.
The ROC, the KMT and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) say there is only one China in the world and that is the ROC.
Yet in the international community and the UN they only recognize the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
On May 27, a group led by former DPP chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) proposed a “broad one China framework” based on five principles, including: respecting the “status quo,” establishing an international legal entity consisting of the ROC and the PRC, and striving to eliminate hostilities and working together.
This “greater China” principle proposed by the so-called bipartisan mix of pan-greens and pan-blues was rejected by both the Beijing government and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The PRC insists on “one country, two systems,” while the KMT and Ma insist on his “three noes” — “no unification, no independence and no use of force.”
The DPP and Tsai insist on Taiwanese consent — that Taiwan’s future should be decided by the 23 million Taiwanese.
All the above-mentioned concepts and proposals are based on the idea that the ROC legally owns Taiwan. Unfortunately there is no legal document that can prove that the ROC owns Taiwan’s sovereign territory. If we tie Taiwan to the ROC, we go nowhere.
On Nov. 30, 1950, between 3pm and 6:30pm, the UN Security Council held its 530th Meeting at Lake Success, New York, and made a very clear answer to China’s claim of ownership of Taiwan. It made a decisive vote of nine to one that rejected China’s complaint about a US-armed invasion of Taiwan.
Wu Xiuquan (伍修權), the official representative of the Central People’s Government of the PRC, had accused the US of aggression and invading its territory.
However, the UN Security Council did not agree with the complaint.
Even then-ROC UN ambassador Tsiang Tingfu (蔣廷黻) voted against Wu’s complaint on that day.
This is the official record that Taiwan is not part of China. Please read it at: www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/PV.530.
Yes, all Taiwanese should read this part of history to understand their own national identity.
Taiwan is not the ROC and the ROC is not Taiwan. Of course Taiwan is not part of China. Let us all watch closely what title Ma is going to put on his dream meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Yes, the ROC is part of China and should return to China, but Taiwan will have no part in it.
John Hsieh
Hayward, California
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