TAIPEI, 7 September 2003 — More than 30,000 supporters of Taiwanese independence led by former President Lee Teng-hui rallied in the capital yesterday to call for a change to the country’s official designation.
Chanting slogans such as “Taiwan is the name of our country” and “Taiwan for UN,” the demonstrators from around the island marched in seven groups, gathering on a main road leading to the Presidential Office.
“Republic of China is not a country but title borrowed by Taiwan,” Lee told the banner-waving crowd.
The Republic of China (ROC) was founded by Kuomintang in 1912 after overthrowing the Ching Dynasty. Kuomintang troops fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Chinese communists to continue the ROC government on the island.
Pro-independence activists think the name Republic of China is confusing, and Lee said it was time for the people on the island to exercise their self-determination and drop the title, which he said was “inconsistent with reality.”
“ROC has had no territory but a title since its territory was occupied by the Chinese communists in 1949. Also, it has disappeared from the international community since its seat in the United Nations was replaced by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1971.” Beijing considers the island a breakaway territory awaiting reunification and has threatened to reclaim Taiwan by force if the island ever formally declares independence.
But Lee argued Taiwan has never belonged to the ROC or PRC, saying the island was handed over to the ROC from the Japanese colonial government at the end of World War II in 1945 in a form of “military occupation.”
“The land occupied by the ROC actually belongs to the Taiwanese people,” he said. “I believe one day we will call out aloud the name of our country — Taiwan.”
The march was organized by the Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan consisting of some 70 pro-independence groups. The alliance first held a similar activity in May of last year and has since decided to make this an annual event.
In addition to demanding the country’s official name be changed to “Taiwan” through the enactment of a new constitution, members of the alliance also asked the government to campaign for the island to join the United Nations and other international organizations under that name.
Under China’s pressure, Taiwan has so far only been allowed to use “Chinese Taipei” in some world bodies. Those taking part in the rally, who included a large number of ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members, also demanded the government drop the words “China” or “Chinese” from the names of such state-run enterprises as China Steel Corporation, China Shipbuilding Corporation and Chinese Petroleum Corporation.
The pro-independence DPP ended the KMT’s 51-year grip on power when Chen Shui-bian was elected president in 2000.
Chen yesterday said he would also join the rally if he were not president.
In what rival China criticized was another step by Taipei toward independence, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry on Sept. 1 issued controversial passports, which add the word “Taiwan.” The old passport refers in English to the island as “the Republic of China,” and the addition of the word “Taiwan” would avoid the country being mistaken for China, the ministry said.
KMT Finalizes 2004 Presidential Ticket
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s leading opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) yesterday approved its joint ticket with the People First Party (PFP) for the 2004 presidential election, kicking off a campaign to end what they called the public’s misery under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) governance.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan and his running mate, PFP Chairman James Soong, appeared hand in hand before a cheering crowd as soon as their partnership passed the KMT’s National Congress. “The Taiwanese people handed the government over to the DPP in the first transition of power (in 2000), but it has failed this mandate over the past three years,” Lien said.
He said the DPP had stripped the country of prosperity and justice, leading to protests staged one after another by farmers, teachers and unemployed workers.
“It is a shared perception of Mr. James Soong and I that the two parties must join efforts to push for a second transition of power to deliver the people from misery,” Lien said.
He said the KMT-PFP coalition would work to keep Taiwan’s unemployment rate below four percent and economic growth rate above five percent.
