President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said “I am Taiwanese” in her address marking Double Ten National Day, which the Presidential Office referred to as “Taiwan National Day.”
Tsai is known for her prudence and caution, so the bold gesture in highlighting the title Taiwan deserves support and encouragement.
Politics, it has been said, is the art of compromise, but the outcome can be embarrassing. Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that Oct. 10 is the national day of the Republic of China (ROC), but his concept is fundamentally wrong.
Double Ten National Day is a myth created by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), whose members believe that the ROC was founded on Oct. 10, 1911, with the Wuchang Uprising. No government was founded on that day.
On Oct. 11 that year, the revolutionaries took over Hanyang, and the next day they captured Hankou and established the Hubei military government, which had “the Republic of China” in the literal meaning of its full official name.
Later, more provinces followed suit and established their own independent governments. On Jan. 1, 1912, a conference of the provincial representatives established the Provisional Government of the Republic of China in Nanjing.
However, the provisional government served no practical function, as the provinces, mainly in central and southern China, continued to do things their own way.
It was not until the provisional government negotiated peace with then-Qing Dynasty government official Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) — who forced the abdication of the final Qing monarch, was elected provisional president and sworn in on March 10 — that the ROC was founded.
The KMT stages this same farce every year. On Oct. 10, it hangs the “Blue Sky, White Sun and a Wholly Red Earth” flag, a joke that lacks historical sense.
The Hubei military government used the “Iron Blood Eighteen-Star” flag, and the provisional government and its branches used the five-colored flag. The one that the KMT hangs is the naval flag of the provisional government.
The farce has nothing to do with Taiwan, which was under Japanese rule at that time and was not connected to China. In this sense, Ma’s argument has a point: Making Oct. 10 “Taiwan National Day” is illogical — a poorly conceived fabrication.
Taiwan should have its own national day, perhaps on the day when it is normalized and officially founded as a country.
If Taiwanese must decide on the date now, here are some options:
If people are to pursue common ground between the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party, they could consider March 1, the day in 1950 that Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正) took office as president, marking the beginning of the “ROC in Taiwan,” despite it being essentially a foreign regime.
If people take into account the day when Taiwanese became the masters of the nation, July 28 would be worth celebrating, because that is when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in 1994 pushed to amend the Constitution to allow direct presidential elections.
Double Ten National Day, which is seen by some as the birthday of a dead republic, is nothing but a farce.
Taiwanese deserve a real “Taiwan National Day.” It is a pity that Tsai did not take a historic step to create one in the third year of her second term. Hopefully, a future leader can have a keen awareness of the nation’s history and find a proper national birthday for Taiwanese.
Tommy Lin is president of the Formosa Republican Association, president of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance and a medical doctor.
Translated by Sylvia Hsu
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