The issue of Taiwan’s status has long been disputed. Since 1949, more than half a century ago, a civil war divided a Chinese nation into two governments within the Chinese territories. One is the People’s Republic of China on the mainland (China), the other is the Republic of China on Taiwan (Taiwan). After enjoying years of prosperity and democracy, the people of Taiwan have gone a long way toward realizing their dream of self-governance politically and economically. Despite the dispute on the Taiwan sovereignty issue politically, both sides of the Taiwan Strait share common interests economically. This evolution poses risks and, at the same time, presents opportunities to both Taiwan and China. The Taiwan issue itself lies not in whether Taiwan is an independent state, but rather whether or not to unite with China and that this is accepted by the people of Taiwan. While studying Taiwan’s legal status and its related issues, the functional views of international law on political integration and economic globalization should not be put aside.
PREFACE
The issue of Taiwan’s status has long been disputed. Since 1949, more than half a century ago, a civil war divided a Chinese nation into two governments within the Chinese territories. One is the People’s Republic of China on the mainland (China), the other is the Republic of China on Taiwan (Taiwan). Since then, China has long embraced the position of annexing Taiwan as its essential goal based on the political fiction of the one-China principle, assuming that “there is only one China internationally, Taiwan is a part of China, and the People’s Republic of China is the sole government to represent the whole China,” despite the fact that Taiwan’s views of one-China concept is quite different from Mainland China’s. Seemingly, however, the view that “Taiwan is a part of China” has been accepted worldwide. This situation leads the status of Taiwan to become confusing in most people’s minds. If Taiwan is a part of China, who should govern Taiwan, the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China.
After enjoying years of prosperity and democracy, the people of Taiwan have gone a long way toward realizing their dream of self-governance politically and economically. Currently Taiwan is the world’s 19th largest economy, the 15th largest trading country, and even one of the world’s most competitive economies. Thus, the Taiwan’s issue is typically one of the global problems to be considered under international law. Despite the dispute on the Taiwan sovereignty issue politically, both sides of the Taiwan Strait share common interests economically. The result of the increased economic interdependence should not come as a surprise. This evolution poses risks and, at the same time, presents opportunities to both Taiwan and China. While studying Taiwan’s legal status and its related issues, the functional views of international law on political integration and economic globalization should not be put aside. Although China’s threat to use force against Taiwan’s separatist movement is the source of regional instability in the Asia-Pacific area, as a matter of legal concern, it does not imply that there is no room for Taiwan to receive international respect for regaining its political status as a sovereign independent state. In other words, to internationalize the Taiwan issue is one thing, to settle the existing dispute between Taiwan and China is another. By this logic, China’s views of “peaceful unification” and “one country two systems” may not be the only option to resolve the long outstanding sovereignty dispute of the Taiwan issue. The Taiwan issue itself lies not in whether Taiwan is an independent state, but rather whether or not to unite with China and that this is accepted by the people of Taiwan.
As a Taiwanese, I feel it is very meaningful to be able to focus on this issue. I hope my work on this issue will create a new approach to help clarify Taiwan’s ambiguous status and benefit the future of Taiwan. To complete this dissertation, I am very grateful to Prof. Dr. Sompong Sucharitkul, Prof. Dr. Christian N. Okeke, and Prof. Dr. Van Walt Van Praag for their thoughtful support. They made me more knowledgeable of international legal studies. I also immensely appreciate the help of Mrs. Ruth C. Traver, Ms. Penelope A. Hedges, Dr. Emeka Duruigbo, and my lovely wife, Vicky Lin, in editing the earlier draft of this paper. In addition, I am profoundly thankful to Prof. Chris Pagano, Prof. Warren E. Small, Prof. Michael S. Daw, Mr. Christopher Jones, Mr. Harvey Tsai, Mrs. Kuei-yin Wu, Ms. Huguette Lo, and my dear friends for their considerate encouragement. Finally, thanks to my beloved family for their constant support that allowed me to devote so much time to my studies in the USA.
Eric, Seattle, 2/25/2007
§ 1-1 Geography & People
Taiwan is an island on the Pacific Rim, sitting in the middle of a chain of islands in the Western Pacific and separated from the Chinese mainland by the Taiwan Strait. The total area of Taiwan is nearly 36,000 square miles, that is, slightly smaller than the Netherlands. Currently, the government of Taiwan is officially known as Republic of China, or Republic of China on Taiwan. Informally, people call it Nationalist China, Formosa , Taiwan, or simply Taipei.
There are over twenty-two million inhabitants on Taiwan making it one of the most densely populated places in the world. Taiwan is comprised of four major groups namely the Aborigines, the Fukien Taiwanese, the Hakka Taiwanese, and the Mainland Chinese(Mainlanders). The Fukien and Hakkas Taiwanese were Chinese immigrants who moved to Taiwan during the 14th and 17th centuries for the purpose of procuring a better life. The reason that Mailanders moved to Taiwan was totally different from that of the Fukien and Hakka Taiwanese. The majority of mainlanders were either soldiers or government officials who came to Taiwan because Nationalist China was defeated by Chinese communists in 1949 resulting in the birth of the People’s Republic of China on the Chinese mainland and the relocation of the Republic of China to Taiwan. Since the Fukien Taiwanese and Hakka Taiwanese came to Taiwan before the Mainlanders, they also called themselves indigenous Taiwanese. Due to the economic boom as well as social and cultural changes, a very large proportion of the people of Taiwan no longer distinguish themselves from these ethnic groups strictly. Rather, they simply regard themselves as Taiwanese, or indigenous Taiwanese.
Eric Tinglun Huang黃鼎倫
*1964, Pingtung, Taiwan
*L.B.(1990), Soo-chow University School of Law, Taipei, Taiwan.
*LL.M.(1998), & S.J.D.(2003),Golden Gate University School of Law,
San Francisco, USA.
*Assistant Professor, Tajen University, Pingtung, Taiwan.
*Visiting Scholar, University of Washington,Seattle,USA
e-mail: taiwaneric@hotmail.com
