Taiwan Has the Legitimate Authority to Reclaim China or Allow China to Become Independent, Not the Other Way Around

Taiwan's Vice President and president-elect, Lai Ching-te, speaks to supporters at a rally in Taipei, Taiwan, on Jan. 13, 2024. Annabelle Chih/Getty Images

Opinion

Beijing constantly threatens that Taiwan’s independence is absolutely unacceptable, but many Chinese intellectuals hold the opposite view: it is Taiwan, which legally represents the Republic of China (ROC), that has the authority to reclaim mainland China or allow mainland China to become independent from the ROC if the Chinese people truly want it.

Following the victory of Taiwan’s newly elected president, William Lai Ching-Te,  in January’s general election, Taiwan’s unification or separation was again an international hot topic.

In August 2023, Bloomberg TV released an interview in Chinese with Mr. Lai, then vice president of Taiwan. When asked whether he would pursue formal independence for Taiwan, Lai said that “Taiwan is already a sovereign, independent country called the Republic of China (ROC)” and that “there is no need to declare independence.”

Some Chinese intellectuals further point out that the ROC originally included Taiwan and the Mainland and that the ROC government is the legitimate government of Greater China, while the Chinese Communist regime is a rebel regime.

The China-Taiwan Dispute

After the end of World War II, unlike other countries that were busy rebuilding, China suffered more years of civil war.

Japan accepted the terms of surrender in August 1945. Yet in 1946, a fragile truce between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) in China was shattered when a full-scale civil war broke out. In the end, Soviet-backed Chinese communist forces defeated the KMT, forcing the KMT government and its army to retreat to Taiwan.

Despite having fought the CCP on the battlefield for many years, the KMT now strongly emphasizes Chinese nationalism and the unity of the Chinese nation.

In contrast, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Mr. Lai’s party and the KMT’s political rival on the island, advocates Taiwan as a de facto sovereign nation. The DPP believes Taiwan should strengthen its defenses against China’s threats and deepen relations with the United States and other democracies.

For these reasons, the CCP, which views Taiwan as a renegade province and vows to unify Taiwan, often exploits the KMT’s nostalgic sentiments to pursue more bilateral cooperation and eventual unification while condemning the DPP as die-hard “Taiwan independence” separatists.

Legitimacy of the Republic of China

Guo Jun, the Epoch Times’ Hong Kong edition editor-in-chief, stated on the “Pinnacle View” program that Chinese intellectuals generally agree with Mr. Lai’s statement that ROC has always been an independent country.

Ms. Guo further explained that of the two major political parties in Taiwan, the KMT recognizes that there is only one China, the Republic of China (ROC), and the mainland is also part of the ROC.