During the era of authoritarian rule, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) made the subject of “Taiwan independence” strictly taboo, one of a triumvirate of public enemies, together with the dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) movement and the “communist bandits” in China. It might seem laughable now, but at the time the KMT was very successful in making the very mention of the term unthinkable.
Taiwan has been an independent, sovereign nation since the Japanese ceded control: This is objective reality. The KMT might insist that the Republic of China (ROC) has the right to govern the whole of China, but no matter how much it tried to brainwash Taiwanese through school textbooks, the government in Taiwan has no control whatsoever over what happens in China, and the Chinese government cannot step foot in Taiwan.
A succession of democratically elected presidents have gradually made descriptions of Taiwan’s political reality more rational. Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) used the term “the ROC on Taiwan,” a convention continued by his successor, Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) uses the term “ROC (Taiwan).”
With democratization, Taiwanese have become increasingly aware of the nation’s autonomous nature, and there is growing debate about national sovereignty. The pro-independence movement even differentiates between Taiwanese who arrived here before the Chinese Civil War and those who came over with the KMT government after the war. For this movement, talk of the “ROC (Taiwan)” is actually a form of “Chinese independence” within Taiwan. However, whether one speaks of “Taiwan independence” or “Chinese independence,” these are both distinctions made by Taiwanese.
The reality is that the difference between Taiwan independence, “Chinese independence” or ROC supporters — who would never call themselves pro-independence — matters little, because the world community sees right through the ROC veil, and China continues to suppress Taiwan, more intent on extinguishing the ROC than it is on rubbing out the Taiwan independence movement. For the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the continued existence of the ROC is a challenge to its right to govern Taiwan, and it is more despised even than the pro-Taiwan independence movement.
So, what is Taiwan independence? The vast majority of Taiwanese are very clear that Taiwan is an independent, sovereign nation. This is not a stance, it is reality. Within Taiwan’s jurisdiction, Beijing cannot levy taxes, nor can it station troops, nor can it arrest Taiwanese at will. Anyone who identifies with Taiwan and believes Taiwan to be an independent, sovereign nation is said to be pro-Taiwan independence. Using this definition, almost all Taiwanese are pro-independence, whether they fall under the categories of pro-Taiwan independence or pro-“Chinese independence.”
In the CCP’s eyes, these categories mean nothing: The refusal to accept peaceful unification with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), or an insistence on a single China governed according to the “three principles of the people” and not by the CCP, are all considered pro-independence.
In the past, Taiwan has always had to accept a compromise, but the international situation has changed. The US has taken the lead by using the name Taiwan instead of the ROC; Taiwanese politicians and the public are the ones who cannot decide what to call their own nation.
With the exception of an outlier minority that wishes to be annexed by the PRC, the majority of Taiwanese should wake up and realize that, in reality, everyone is pro-Taiwan independence.
Tommy Lin is director of Wu Fu Eye Clinic and president of the Formosa Republican Association.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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