臺灣的定位(1945-2008)

Abstract

Looking back on Taiwan’s history, it is an island in ocean and located between Japan, Eurasia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, and it is also a transfer station for the berthing of ships from various countries since ancient times. Since the Age of Exploration in 15th and 16th century, Taiwan gradually became the focus of attention in the international environment of competing over the ocean power. In 1624, the Dutch entered the south part of Taiwan, while the Spaniard sent troops and occupied the north part of Taiwan two years later. In 1662, Jheng Cheng-gong led troops and took Zeelandia established by the Dutch in Taiwan, and defeated the regime established by Dutch East India Company, who then established the first Chinese regime in Taiwan history. In 1683, Qing government general Shi Lang led troops to attack and occupy Taiwan which formally ended the Jheng’s reign of three generations in Taiwan. In 1895, Qing government was defeated in Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 and signed Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, which ceded the territory and sovereignty of Taiwan and Penghu to Japan. In the same year, the people in Taiwan who opposed ceding established “Taiwan Democratic Country”, which only lasted half a year. After that, Japan gradually controlled the whole Taiwan and its ruling power was becoming more and more stable. Japan was defeated in World War Ⅱ. In 1945, Taiwan was brought into Republic of China as a province. In 1949, the government of Republic of China lost mainland China and retreated to Taiwan. However, the rules of international documentations concerning the final ownership of Taiwan’s territory and sovereignty were not clear, which raised doubts in the legitimacy of Republic of China’s rule. In addition, it was expelled from UN and lost its representation of China, which brought it into an extremely weak position and status. Since 1990s, a series of constitutional reform and democratic project were developed, national sovereignty was generally put into practice, the leaders in Taiwan continuously demonstrated the national character of Taiwan, and the national orientation of Taiwan showed a transformation sign. Taiwan’s national orientation is still a politically sensitive issue and becomes a special phenomenon in Taiwan’s political culture. Based on the concern for Taiwan, this study attempts to present Taiwan’s national orientation from 1945 to 2008 faithfully according to the theories and practical operations in international law. The new nation organism model put forward by this study regards nation as an organism and pays attention to the dynamic process of national growth, in which citizens, territory, government, sovereignty and self-assertion of national character are five core elements. Once any element changes, it will affect the coordinates of nation orientation and produces swing, which is the important key in the advancement or degeneration of national orientation. Only the relationship and interaction of every element in a new nation is balanced and adaptive to the national environment changes, can the nation achieve the long-term consolidation and development. The sovereignty status and position of United States, Japan and People’s Republic of China towards Taiwan also affect Taiwan’s national orientation. In addition, two questions should be clarified when exploring Taiwan’s national orientation, one is the ownership of Taiwan’s territory and sovereignty, the other is the legal status of Republic of China. This study finds that in terms of the ownership of Taiwan’s territory and sovereignty, from 1895 to 1952, Taiwan was in the period of Japanese colonial rule; from 1952 to 1991, Taiwan belonged to Allied Powers; after 1991, Taiwan was in the period of Republic of China. In terms of the legal status of Republic of China, from 1912 to 1945, Taiwan was in the period of Chinese legitimate government; from 1945 to 1949, Taiwan was temporarily under the governance of Chinese legitimate government; from 1949 to 1971, Taiwan was temporarily under the governance control of nominal Chinese legitimate government-in-exile; from 1971 to 1991, Taiwan was temporarily under the governance of Chinese rebel government-in-exile; after 1991, Taiwan entered into a new period as a nation.