Why it is “politically incorrect” to discuss Taiwan’s independence — Let a Taiwanese citizen tell.

Question: Is the country’s official name (A) Taiwan; (B) Republic of China; or (C) Both, Taiwan (R.O.C.)?

Answer: …

Well, I’d say most Taiwanese people are confused as well.

It’s 2:00 pm. I habitually switched to Taiwan CDC’s YouTube channel for daily press briefing. No confirmed cases. It has been a month since CDC reported the last local case.

As COVID-19 pandemic raged, Taiwan has gained attention from the international media. My country is special in many ways — food, culture, geography, equality — but its political status is arguably the most noticeable.

I combined the keywords “Taiwan, political status, independence,” googled articles, and was soon overwhelmed by unbelievably long articles narrating modern Chinese history, KMT, DPP and 1992 consensus, etc.

Not surprisingly, very few English articles were from local people’s perspective, so I started on this article to share my thoughts on this issue as a Taiwanese citizen.

“Taiwan independence problem” is a topic elaborated by lots of theses, but from my point of view, it can be summarized in a very simple way — In fact, with a single sentence:

Currently two countries claim to represent “China” internationally: Republic of China (R.O.C.) and People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.).

According to both countries’ constitutions, Taiwan and mainland China are not separated. The Republic of China (R.O.C.) government was defeated by the Communist Party of China in 1949 in mainland China. The former escaped to Taiwan and stayed, and the latter is now known as “the official, internationally recognized China” — P.R.C.

For the Taiwanese, there are three solutions to this awkward situation:

1. Claim Taiwan’s independence from “the two Chinas” — not just from the communist P.R.C., but also from the democratic R.O.C. — and build a new country.
2. Maintain an ambiguous status and have “Taiwan” and “R.O.C.” co-exist. This is the status quo. This is why President Tsai Ing-wen referred to our country as “Taiwan, R.O.C.” and said that Taiwan is already an independent country.
3. Claim that R.O.C. is the only legal regime and that P.R.C should give up mainland China and unite with R.O.C. As ridiculous as it may seem, this was exactly what the KMT government taught my parents and grandparents few decades ago.

Democracy is young (less than 40 years old) and timid in Taiwan. Solution 1# and 3# are too extreme and provocative for most Taiwanese citizens. Obviously we need much time to reach consensus.

But the complicated circumstances among the U.S., China and Taiwan constantly deprive Taiwanese people of the chance to discuss calmly.

We have no consensus on our cultural and national identity. We lack conversation between generations. We are still working on translational justice.

I’d say that most Taiwanese people understand the difficult situation we are in, but only a few recognize that besides being bullied by P.R.C., it is partially ourselves to blame for sticking to such conflicting position.

Still, I am not the one to decide whether independence or union is the better option. I only hope that one day, Taiwan — this democratic, inclusive and resilient island — becomes a normal country.

Hi everyone! I wrote this article to share my thoughts about my country's situation with people outside of Taiwan. Since English is not my native language, please tolerate with the writing. I’d be happy to receive any type of feedback!