Former president and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in a speech at China’s Hunan University on Sunday said that “Taiwan and mainland China belong to one China.” He said “it is a clear fact” that the constitution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), amended in 1982, stipulates that “Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People’s Republic of China.”
Ma’s “one China” stance echoes Beijing’s “one China” principle, demonstrating his willingness to be reduced to the status of an Internet influencer for China’s “united front” warfare that promotes unification with Taiwan, despite the PRC’s insistence that it is the only legitimate government of China, and that the Republic of China (ROC) was overthrown in 1949.
Ma said that “our country” amended the ROC Constitution, so that “our country was divided into two parts — the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. Both are our Republic of China, both are ‘one China.’”
The ROC Constitution and its Additional Articles only refer to the “free area“ of the ROC. In the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Taiwan Area is defined as territory under ROC control and the Mainland Area refers to the territory outside ROC control. Ma’s contention is simply not borne out by this.
According to the ROC Constitution, Ma could say that China, including Mongolia, belongs to the ROC, and should insist that the PRC be absorbed into the ROC.
Taiwan was not mentioned in the PRC constitution promulgated in 1954. The phrase “Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People’s Republic of China” was added to the preamble in 1982, an amendment rejected by the ROC at the time.
By quoting from the two constitutions and echoing Beijing’s “one China” principle, Ma deviates from the historical fact that Taiwan has never been a part of the PRC, and the ROC on Taiwan and the PRC in China are two separate political entities.
During his trip to China, Ma has spent much of his time trying to connect Taiwan with China, saying that people on both sides speak the same language and are “all Chinese,” even being moved to tears, speaking in the language of Hunan Province and singing on a TV show. Ma’s behavior would have been viewed as treason by Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
Ma ignores the fact that more than 80 percent of Taiwanese were born and grew up in Taiwan, including many so called “waishengren” (外省人) — those who came from China with the KMT after the Chinese Civil War, and their offspring. In polls, the overwhelming majority of people in Taiwan — anywhere from 70 to 90 percent — identify as Taiwanese, not Chinese.
In China, Ma has repeatedly quoted Alphonse Daudet’s short story The Last Lesson, about a teacher in Alsace, France, who lamented being forbidden from teaching French, his mother tongue, when the region was under German rule following the Franco-Prussian War. Referring to how Germany and France eventually became partners in the EU, Ma has called on people across the Taiwan Strait to communicate with each other. Ironically, he seems to have forgotten that the KMT prohibited Taiwanese from learning their mother tongues and forced them to learn Chinese history.
He is once again trying to make Taiwanese give up their identity, sovereignty and dignity to embrace “one China.”
Of course most Taiwanese would like to have normal exchanges with people in China and to have peaceful dialogue with the Chinese government, but this must be based on Taiwanese’s democratic determination and free will, not the PRC’s coercion or for any politician’s political interests. This is a lesson Ma must learn.
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