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The Liberty Times
Editorial: Ma still living in his ROC fantasy
When President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) demanded that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) recognize the Republic of China (ROC), Tsai
responded by saying that the ROC is Taiwan and Taiwan is the ROC. Tsai’s
comments drew immediate criticism from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), with
officials saying that Tsai’s idea is a repackaged form of Taiwanese independence
and that cross-strait relations have never been and can never be
“state-to-state” relations. Obviously, for China, the ROC is merely a living
corpse and it will never allow the ROC to change in any way or exist in the
international community.
This shows that there are three ROCs: Ma’s ROC, Tsai’s ROC and the ROC as
perceived by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Tsai’s ROC merely adopts the
name of the ROC, which was established in 1912, to refer to present-day Taiwan.
It can thus be understood as referring to “the sovereign country made up of 23
million people and which currently uses the name ROC.” This viewpoint is well in
line with reality, although saying that “Taiwan is the ROC” inevitably leads to
complications relating to the Chinese Civil War.
In contrast to Tsai’s comments about the ROC being Taiwan and Taiwan being the
ROC, Ma says the ROC stretches across the entirety of China and that Taiwan is
part of China. In other words, Ma thinks Taiwan is simply a part of China that
still has not been unified with it. Although Ma is Taiwan’s president voted in
by Taiwanese voters, he does not see Taiwan as a country.
If we look back at what has happened since 1912, we will see that the ROC has
never ruled the whole of China and that after it was chased out of China in
1949, it started to occupy Taiwan, a place that never belonged to it, but which
it has occupied ever since. Therefore, Ma’s ROC is not only a flat-out refusal
to recognize that the ROC is in fact Taiwan, but also includes daydreams about
the ROC government owning all of China’s territories. In short, it’s a pipe
dream.
Apart from fantasizing that the ROC’s territory overlaps with that of the PRC,
Ma has expanded this fantasy by insisting that the PRC agrees that there is “one
China, with each side having its own interpretation.” Ma has taken this to the
point where he says that the ROC is not something of the past, but exists in the
present continuous tense. This, however, does not sit well with China.
At China’s centennial celebrations of the Wuchang Uprising, Chinese President Hu
Jintao (胡錦濤) did not mention a single word about the ROC. The Chinese Communist
Party’s (CCP) mouthpiece the Global Times said the ROC that exists today is but
a temporary historical enclave and that the real ROC died in 1949. It was
against that backdrop that TAO officials criticized Tsai’s ideas as a repackaged
form of Taiwanese independence.
The idea that the ROC is Taiwan and that Taiwan is the ROC is quite similar to
the view that China held during the times of former presidents Chiang Kai-shek
(蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), when China said the two Chiangs occupied
Taiwan in the name of the ROC, thus blocking China from completing the great
task of unifying China — eliminating the ROC and annexing Taiwan — and in effect
creating an independent ROC, although the process was different from the
formation of Taiwanese independence.
Today, the PRC would neither allow Taiwan to use the name ROC to assert its
independence nor the ROC to use Taiwan to breathe life back into the ROC. From a
Taiwanese viewpoint, the independent ROC of the two Chiangs or Taiwanese
independence has the same aim: to resist annexation by China. This is what a
“Taiwan consensus” must be based on.
The PRC should be rejoicing. The Chiangs’ effort that was so strongly criticized
by China as creating an independent ROC has, in the hands of Ma, turned into a
unification effort. The reason Ma supports the ROC is not because he opposes
annexation — as the two Chiangs did — but because he wants to prevent Taiwanese
independence and obstruct Taiwan developing into a normal nation. Thus, despite
knowing full well that the PRC has replaced the ROC and won the right to
represent China, Ma still uses the idea of “one China, with each side having its
own interpretation” to deceive Taiwanese into believing that the PRC will
tolerate the ROC — whose sovereignty stretches across the whole of China — and
allow some fuzzy existence of “two Chinas.”
Reality has been quite brutal to Ma as of late. As the ROC was celebrating its
centenary, the PRC started sending signals aimed at dampening his excitement.
The TAO’s criticism of Tsai’s remarks as another guise of Taiwanese independence
was also a reminder to Ma that cross-strait relations have never been and can
never be “state-to-state” relations.
So, Mr President, given China’s statement, how can there be room for the ROC to
exist and what does having your own interpretation of “one China” mean?
Translated by Drew Cameron
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