The Legislative Yuan has passed new legislation adding four national holidays and making Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors.
That would create a confusing national identity for Taiwanese and the government.
Taiwan Retrocession Day and the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou, and Constitution Day are used by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to indoctrinate Taiwanese, feeding them propaganda to make them think they are Chinese. It is the same case for Teachers’ Day, which marks the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius’ (孔子) birthday.
The “retrocession of Taiwan” refers to Japan handing over Taiwan proper and Penghu to the Republic of China (ROC) in 1945. To the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party, it is the only legal basis for the “one China” principle in international law.
On Oct. 25, 1945, the Japanese surrender ceremony took place in Taipei. The ROC’s Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) handed Order No. 1 to General Rikichi Ando, Japan’s last governor-general of Taiwan, saying: “Receiving the territory of Taiwan and the Penghu archipelago.”
After Ando signed the document, Chen delivered a speech proclaiming that Taiwan and the Penghu Islands had rejoined China.
That political show was the so-called “retrocession of Taiwan.” That was not valid in international law. A military occupier does not have the right to hand over the sovereignty of an occupied territory. It is a peace treaty that can determine the sovereignty of an occupied territory after a war. It is the principle of international law.
Ando, as a governor and an army commander, did not have the right to hand over the sovereignty of an occupied territory on behalf of his government.
Then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was aware of the invalidity of the “retrocession of Taiwan.” Therefore, on Jan. 12, 1949, he called then-Taiwan provincial governor Chen Cheng (陳誠) to inform him that until the peace treaty was signed, Taiwan was just a territory under the ROC’s trusteeship.
Most of the Allies, including the US, did not recognize that Japan ceded Taiwan to the ROC. Therefore, on Sept. 8, 1951, the Allies and Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which states that “Japan renounces all right, title and claim to Formosa and the Pescadores.”
The statement of the “retrocession of Taiwan” is thus untenable. The “one China” principle that rests its legal basis on that statement is also merely political propaganda.
Designating Retrocession Day as a national holiday by passing new legislation would instill the narrative of “one China” in the general public, reshaping national identity. The international community would also be put under the impression that the Taiwanese government and its people accept the “one China” principle, and China would step up its “united front” efforts by saying that “Taiwan’s restoration to China was a victorious outcome of World War II.”
Hideki Nagayama is the chairman of the Taiwan Research Forum.
Translated by Fion Khan
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
Father’s Day, as celebrated around the world, has its roots in the early 20th century US. In 1910, the state of Washington marked the world’s first official Father’s Day. Later, in 1972, then-US president Richard Nixon signed a proclamation establishing the third Sunday of June as a national holiday honoring fathers. Many countries have since followed suit, adopting the same date. In Taiwan, the celebration takes a different form — both in timing and meaning. Taiwan’s Father’s Day falls on Aug. 8, a date chosen not for historical events, but for the beauty of language. In Mandarin, “eight eight” is pronounced
US President Donald Trump’s alleged request that Taiwanese President William Lai (賴清德) not stop in New York while traveling to three of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, after his administration also rescheduled a visit to Washington by the minister of national defense, sets an unwise precedent and risks locking the US into a trajectory of either direct conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or capitulation to it over Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities have said that no plans to request a stopover in the US had been submitted to Washington, but Trump shared a direct call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平)
It is difficult to think of an issue that has monopolized political commentary as intensely as the recall movement and the autopsy of the July 26 failures. These commentaries have come from diverse sources within Taiwan and abroad, from local Taiwanese members of the public and academics, foreign academics resident in Taiwan, and overseas Taiwanese working in US universities. There is a lack of consensus that Taiwan’s democracy is either dying in ashes or has become a phoenix rising from the ashes, nurtured into existence by civic groups and rational voters. There are narratives of extreme polarization and an alarming
RSS