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Ma is living in the
past, digging the ROC¡¦s grave
By James Wang ¤ý´º¥°
When the US government stopped recognizing the Republic of China¡¦s (ROC)
government--in-exile in 1979, members of the US Congress ardently drafted the
Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). The TRA specifies that Taiwan shall be treated as a
country and authorizes the sale of defensive arms and commercial and cultural
exchanges with Taiwan to continue.
When former president Lee Teng-hui (§õµn½÷) was in power, he insisted on
democratization and localization, and amended the Constitution to manifest the
division between Taiwan and China. In rearranging the ROC, its territory was
subsequently limited to the island of Taiwan, and the Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu
archipelagos, and relinquished the old territorial claims of the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT). This was Taiwan¡¦s stance. Whether the international
community recognizes such claims is another matter entirely.
At the time when President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) was in the US protesting then-US
president Jimmy Carter¡¦s recognition of the ¡§communist bandits,¡¨ ie, the
People¡¦s Republic of China (PRC), waving an ROC flag and shouting slogans, he
clearly understood that Taiwan was not part of China. However, he now accepts
Taiwan as being part of China under the so-called ¡§one China¡¨ policy, and
consoles himself by saying that the ROC is that ¡§one China,¡¨ refusing to see the
PRC as a nation. However, Ma does not claim Taiwan is a nation, either.
After democratization and desinicization, the ROC was reborn and there are still
reasons to advocate that the new nation has no connection to China. Ma is still
stuck in the empty ROC described in the antiquated 1947 Constitution, a
government-in-exile fit only to occupy Taiwan, and whose territory includes only
the Kinmen and Matsu archipelagos.
Ma has used paid academics to concoct the doctrine of a ¡§unified Taiwan,¡¨ in
which the only remaining territories of the ROC, Kinmen and Matsu, were used to
annex Taiwan and the Penghu Islands; however, the newly exposed visa regulations
in US immigration policy maintain that Kinmen and Matsu are part of China¡¦s
Fujian Province, a merciless slap in the face for Ma.
As far as the US is concerned, Taiwan and Penghu¡¦s sovereignty is still
undecided, but that of Kinmen and Matsu incontrovertibly belongs to the PRC.
From the Taiwan Strait crisis and the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty of the
mid-1950s up to the TRA of 1979, the US always viewed Taiwan and Penghu on the
one hand, and Kinmen and Matsu on the other, as two separate entities.
The TRA and any amendments made to US immigration laws regarding Taiwan have
always treated Taiwan as a country, giving Taiwan an annual quota of 20,000
immigrants. Moreover, ¡§Taiwan¡¨ is defined in the TRA as ¡§the islands of Taiwan
and the Pescadores [Penghu],¡¨ excluding Kinmen and Matsu.
Thus, those born in Kinmen or Matsu are considered Chinese, and they are not
allowed to use Taiwan¡¦s immigration quota.
By accepting the ¡§one China¡¨ policy, Ma once again reduces the ROC to a
government--in-exile that occupies Taiwan, which belongs to the Taiwanese, and
Kinmen and Matsu, which belong to the PRC. Ma is simply digging the ROC¡¦s grave:
He does not advocate that there is an independent country on each side of the
Taiwan Strait, and instead consoles himself with a ¡§one China¡¨ policy, but who
still sees the ¡§Republic of China¡¨ as the ¡§one China¡¨?
James Wang is a media commentator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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