The Academia Sinica on March 8 announced that Yang An-suei (楊安綏) and his team had in 19 days developed a diagnostic reagent that can identify SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — in as few as 15 minutes.
As Taiwanese celebrated the breakthrough, China claimed credit at a WHO meeting, saying that the development was the outcome of dozens of “mutual reports” between the “Chinese central government” and “the Chinese province of Taiwan.”
APPALLING BEHAVIOR
This shameless behavior angered many Taiwanese. The Chinese Communist Party has always believed that repeating a lie a thousand times would make it true, which is particularly appalling.
Many people might think that the concept of the “Taiwan Province” ended in 1997, when the provincial government was frozen. However, any Taiwanese looking at the birthplace in their passport will see that if they were born in one of the six special municipalities — Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung — that city is given as their birthplace.
However, if they were not born in those cities, but in, for example, Keelung, Hsinchu, Chiayi, Hualien or Penghu, “Taiwan” is listed as their birthplace.
As for people born in Kinmen and Matsu, they are recorded as being born in Fujian Province, also referred to as Fukien.
Since a special municipality and a province are on the same level in the governmental structure, Taiwan and Fujian in the passport are of course references to provinces.
FROZEN PROVINCES
The administrative regions “Taiwan Province” and “Fujian Province” still exist, but without receiving a budget, they are frozen. They are in effect two corpses that remain within Taiwan’s legal framework.
The legal basis comes from Article 3 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法): “The local governments are subdivided into the provincial government and special municipalities ... the province is subdivided into counties and cities.”
So far, “Taiwan Province” has jurisdiction over the “provincial cities” Keelung, Hsinchu and Chiayi, as well as the three counties. Whenever China belittles Taiwanese by using the name “Taiwan Province,” Taiwanese cannot even shout back that there is no such place as “Taiwan Province.” This is frustrating.
The local government division is a matter of Taiwan’s domestic affairs, and the Local Government Act is domestic law, which can be reviewed and amended by the government.
The Republic of China on Taiwan is a small country with several provinces, and it is no longer appropriate to think of the scale of a province in terms of a pre-1949 map of China.
Belgium is similar in size to Taiwan, and it has 10 provinces and a capital region. Taiwan’s executive and legislative branches should think of Taiwan as a small country and design a local government structure suitable for this country.
LEGAL CHANGES
The expression “top-selling product available across the province” (全省熱賣中) often appears in advertising, describing Taiwan as a province. This is no different from the Chinese point of view.
Taiwan should amend relevant laws and regulations and restructure the counties and municipalities as “provinces,” so that the term “Taiwan Province” will finally disappear.
Allen Hertzberger lives in Germany and is the former coordinator of National Taiwan University’s women’s and gender studies program.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.