The meaning of ‘Great ROC’
With Ma saying that Taiwan and Mainland China are part of a “Great ROC” has drawn fire from the Green camps, saying that it does not reflect the ROC’s actual jurisdiction and demotes Taiwan’s status. Let’s look at this argument again. From a historical perspective, having two governments claiming the same territory as one country is not unprecedented. There has only ever been “One Korea” and “One Germany,” each with two governments claiming the entirety of their nation. No national map of either Korean republic only shows the land under their jurisdiction, they claim it ALL. With such precedents, for the ROC not to do the same would irrational! Furthermore, as I explained in my earlier post, Why the Republic of China?, maintaining ROC bolsters our sovereignty; saying that we are only what the PRC claims to be a province of theirs is what demotes us.
However, after this point is where Ma and I differ. I say we should push for an acceptance of ROC on the international scene with PRC, much like how North and South Korea coexist as “One Korea”, and how East and West Germany used to coexist as “One Germany.” Of course, currently, the PRC doesn’t want any of this, but the chances that they’d rather deal with a Republic of Taiwan instead of a Republic of China are much, much less. Knowing the PRC’s current stance, I can understand Ma’s current rationale of bringing the other side of the strait so that negotiations can *start* and hopefully lead both sides to a win-win situation — but mutual non-recognition has to be carefully calculated and can carry great risk. Of course, the hope is that mutual non-recognition will give way to actual mutual non-denial, but how that progresses, we can only wait and see.
