Editing Political status of Taiwan (section)

=== Republic of China (ROC) ===

{{More citations needed section|date=November 2007}}
[[File:Republic_of_China_(Taiwan)_Passport_2020.svg|thumb|Current [[Republic of China passport]] ([[Taiwan Passport]])]]

The ROC argues that it maintains all the characteristics of a state and that it was not "replaced" or "succeeded" by the PRC because it has continued to exist long after the PRC's founding.

According to the Montevideo Convention of 1933, the most cited source for the definition of statehood, a state must possess a permanent population, a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Some{{Who|date=April 2025}} argue that the ROC meets all these criteria. However, to make such an argument, one has to reject the PRC's claim of sovereignty over the territory of the [[Taiwan island]]. The PRC requires all other states that establish [[diplomatic relations]] with it not to challenge this claim in addition to severing said relations with the ROC. Most states have either officially recognized this claim or carefully worded their agreement ambiguously, such as the United States.<ref>{{Cite book | author = Stephen D. Krasner | title = Problematic Sovereignty: Contested Rules and Political Possibilities | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ISqwQIBQff4C | publisher = [[Columbia University Press]] | date = 2001 | location = [[New York City]] | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=ISqwQIBQff4C&pg=PA46 46] | isbn = 0231121792 | author-link = Stephen D. Krasner | access-date = 9 May 2020 | archive-date = 11 April 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230411110842/https://books.google.com/books?id=ISqwQIBQff4C | url-status = live }}</ref>

Both the original 1912 [[Constitution of the Republic of China|constitution]] and the 1923 draft version failed to list Taiwan as a part of the ROC since, at the time, Taiwan was a Japanese territory. It was only in the mid-1930s when both the CCP and KMT realized the future strategic importance of Taiwan that they altered their party positions to make a claim on Taiwan as a part of China. After losing the Civil War against the CCP in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Party fled to Taiwan and continued to maintain that their government represented all of China, i.e. both Taiwan and the mainland.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

The position of most supporters of [[Taiwan independence]] is that the PRC is the government of "China" and that Taiwan is not part of China, defining "China" as only including Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Regarding the ROC, one ideology within Taiwan's independence regards the ROC as already an independent, sovereign state and seeks to amend the ROC's existing name, constitution, and existing framework to reflect the loss of ROC's mainland territory and transform the ROC into a Taiwan state; while another ideology of Taiwan independence regards the ROC as both a military government that has been administering the Taiwan island as a result of post-war [[military occupation]] on behalf of the allies of World War II since 1945, and a Chinese refugee regime currently in exile on Taiwan since 1949, and seeks to eliminate the ROC and establish a new independent Taiwan state.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

The Democratic Progressive Party states that Taiwan has never been under the jurisdiction of the PRC and that the PRC does not exercise any hold over the 23&nbsp;million Taiwanese on the island. On the other hand, the position of most [[Chinese unification]] supporters is that the Chinese Civil War is still not over since no peace agreement has ever been signed and that the current status is a state of [[ceasefire]] between two [[belligerents]] of "[[One China]]".{{cn|date=August 2024}}

The position of the Republic of China has been that it is a ''[[de jure]]'' sovereign state. "Republic of China," according to the ROC government's definition, extended to both mainland China (Including [[Hong Kong Special Administrative Region|Hong Kong]] and [[Macau]]) and the island of Taiwan.<ref name=mac>{{cite press release | publisher = Mainland Affairs Council, ROC Executive Yuan | date = 29 March 2005 | title = The Official Position of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on China's Passing of the Anti-secession (Anti-Separation) Law | url = http://www.mac.gov.tw/english/english/anti/mofa940329e.htm | access-date = 11 June 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090215122022/http://www.mac.gov.tw/english/english/anti/mofa940329e.htm | archive-date = 15 February 2009 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

In 1991, [[President of the Republic of China|President]] [[Lee Teng-hui]] unofficially claimed that the government would no longer challenge the rule of the CCP in mainland China, although the ROC government under Kuomintang (KMT) rule actively maintained that it was the sole legitimate government of China. The Courts in Taiwan have never accepted President Lee's statement, primarily due to the reason that the (now defunct) [[National Assembly of the Republic of China|National Assembly]] never officially changed the acclaimed national borders. Notably, the People's Republic of China claims that changing the national borders would be "a precursor to Taiwan independence". The task of changing the national borders now requires a constitutional amendment passed by the [[Legislative Yuan]] and ratified by a majority of all eligible ROC voters, which the PRC has implied would constitute grounds for military attack.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

[[File:Exit and Entry Permit of Republic of China (Taiwan).jpg|thumb|Exit and Entry Permit Taiwan, Republic of China. The Republic of China issues this permit to enable residents of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau to travel to Taiwan. The Republic of China refuses to accept [[People's Republic of China passport]]s.]]
On the other hand, though the constitution of the Republic of China promulgated in 1946 does not state exactly what territory it includes, the draft of the constitution of 1925 did individually list the provinces of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]] and [[Taiwan Province|Taiwan]] was not among them, since Taiwan was arguably ''de jure'' part of Japan as the result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895. The constitution also stipulated in Article I.4, that "the territory of the ROC is the original territory governed by it; unless authorized by the National Assembly, it cannot be altered." 

However, in 1946, [[Sun Fo]], son of [[Sun Yat-Sen]] and the minister of the [[Executive Yuan]] of the ROC, reported to the National Assembly that "there are two types of territory changes: 1. renouncing territory and 2. annexing new territory. The first example would be the independence of [[Mongolia]], and the second example would be the reclamation of Taiwan. Both would be examples of territory changes." Japan renounced all rights to Taiwan in the [[Treaty of San Francisco]] in 1951 and the Treaty of Taipei of 1952 without an explicit recipient. While the ROC continuously ruled Taiwan after the government was directed to Taiwan by the [[General Order No. 1]] (1945) to receive Japanese surrender, there has never been a meeting of the ROC National Assembly in making a territory change according to the ROC constitution. The explanatory memorandum to the constitution explained the omission of individually listing the provinces as opposed to the earlier drafts was an act of deliberate ambiguity: as the ROC government does not recognize the validity of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, based on Chiang Kai-shek's [[Denunciation]] of the treaty in the late 1930s, hence (according to this argument) the sovereignty of Taiwan was never disposed of by China. A ratification by the ROC National Assembly is, therefore, unnecessary.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

The [[s:Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China|Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China]] have mentioned "Taiwan Province," and the now defunct National Assembly passed constitutional amendments that give the people of the "[[Free Area of the Republic of China]]", comprising the territories under its current jurisdiction, the sole right, until unification, to exercise the sovereignty of the Republic through elections<ref name=mac /><ref>{{cite news |title=Taiwan assembly passes changes |date=7 June 2005 |publisher=[[BBC News]]|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4616043.stm |access-date=11 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223024224/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4616043.stm |archive-date=23 February 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> of the President and the entire Legislature as well as through elections to ratify amendments to the ROC constitution. Also, Chapter I, Article 2 of the ROC constitution states that "The sovereignty of the Republic of China shall reside in the whole body of citizens." This suggests that the constitution implicitly admits that the sovereignty of the ROC is limited to the areas that it controls, even if there is no constitutional amendment that explicitly spells out the ROC's borders.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

[[File:Taiwan the Province Government Building.JPG|thumb|The building of the Provincial Government of the Taiwan Province of the Republic of China at Jhongsing Village]]
[[File:Presidential Office Taipei.jpg|thumb|The Republic of China Presidential Office Building is located in the Zhongzheng District of [[Taipei]].]]

In 1999, ROC President Lee Teng-hui proposed a [[Special state-to-state relations|two-state theory]] (兩國論) in which both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China would acknowledge that they are two separate countries with a special diplomatic, cultural, and historic relationship.<ref name=2states_1>{{cite news | first=Sanya | last=Bunnag | title=Understanding Taiwan's tactics | date=20 July 1999 | publisher=[[BBC News]]| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/399381.stm | access-date=11 June 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040521081721/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/399381.stm | archive-date=21 May 2004 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name = 2000vote>{{cite journal | author=Willem van Kemenade | title=Taiwan, Voting for Trouble? | journal=The Washington Quarterly | year=2000 | volume=23 | issue=2 | pages=135–151 | url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/washington_quarterly/v023/23.2kemenade.html | doi=10.1162/016366000560809 | s2cid=219627253 | access-date=11 June 2006 | archive-date=11 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411110902/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/36529 | url-status=live }}</ref> This, however, drew an angry reaction from the PRC who believed that Lee was covertly supporting Taiwan independence.<ref name=2states_2>{{cite news | title=Beijing media ups the ante | date=20 July 1999 | publisher=[[BBC News]]| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/399350.stm | access-date=11 June 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930011047/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/399350.stm | archive-date=30 September 2009 | url-status=live }}</ref>

President [[Chen Shui-bian]] (2000&nbsp;– May 2008) fully supported the idea that the "Republic of China is an independent, sovereign country" but held the view that the Republic of China is Taiwan and Taiwan does not belong to the People's Republic of China. This is suggested in his [[Four-stage Theory of the Republic of China]]. Due to the necessity of avoiding war with the PRC, however, President Chen had refrained from formally declaring Taiwan's independence. Government publications have implied that Taiwan refers to the ROC, and "China" refers to the PRC.<ref name=mac /> After becoming chairman of the [[Democratic Progressive Party]] in July 2002, Chen appeared to move further than Lee's special two-state theory and in early August 2002, by putting forward the "[[one country on each side]]" concept, he stated that Taiwan may "go on its own Taiwanese road" and that "it is clear that the two sides of the straits are separate countries." These statements essentially eliminate any "special" factors in the relations and were strongly criticized by opposition parties in Taiwan. President Chen has repeatedly refused to endorse the [[One China policy|One China Principle]] or the more "flexible" [[1992 Consensus]] the PRC demands as a precursor to negotiations with the PRC. During Chen's presidency, there had not been any successful attempts to restart negotiations on a semi-official level.

In the 2008 ROC elections, the people delivered KMT's [[Ma Ying-jeou]] with an election win as well as a sizable majority in the legislature. President Ma, throughout his election campaign, maintained that he would accept the 1992 consensus and promote better relations with the PRC. In respect of Taiwan's political status, his policy was 1. he would not negotiate with the PRC on the subject of unification during his term; 2. he would never declare Taiwan's independence; and 3. he would not provoke the PRC into attacking Taiwan. He officially accepted the 1992 Consensus in his inauguration speech, which resulted in direct semi-official talks with the PRC, and this later led to the commencement of weekend direct charter flights between mainland China and Taiwan. President Ma also interprets the cross-strait relations as "[[special non-state-to-state relations|special]]", "but not that between two nations".<ref name="chinapost.com.tw">{{cite news|title=Taiwan and China in 'special relations': Ma|newspaper=The China Post|date=4 September 2008|url=http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan%20relations/2008/09/04/173082/Taiwan-and.htm|access-date=6 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906092524/http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan%20relations/2008/09/04/173082/Taiwan-and.htm|archive-date=6 September 2008|url-status=live}}</ref> He later stated that mainland China is part of the territory of the Republic of China, and laws relating to international relations are not applicable to the relations between mainland China and Taiwan, as they are parts of a state.<ref name="taipeitimes.com">{{cite news |last=Ko |first=Shu-Ling |title=Ma refers to China as ROC territory in magazine interview |newspaper=Taipei Times |date=8 October 2008 |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/10/08/2003425320 |access-date=8 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090603213128/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/10/08/2003425320 |archive-date=3 June 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |script-title=zh:馬總統：兩岸關係是現實關係 |trans-title=President Ma: Cross-strait relations are relations based on current reality |publisher=Central News Agency of the Republic of China |date=8 October 2008 |url=http://www.president.gov.tw/php-bin/prez/shownews.php4?_section=3&_recNo=2 |language=zh |access-date=8 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171130073559/http://www.president.gov.tw/php-bin/prez/shownews.php4?_section=3&_recNo=2 |archive-date=30 November 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=王寓中 |script-title=zh:馬：大陸是中華民國領土 |trans-title=Ma: the mainland is the territory of the Republic of China |work=Liberty Times|date=8 October 2008 |url=http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/oct/8/today-fo3.htm |language=zh |access-date=8 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010072015/http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/oct/8/today-fo3.htm |archive-date=10 October 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2016, [[Tsai Ing-Wen]] of the DPP won a landslide victory in the presidential election and was later re-elected for the second term in 2020. She refused to agree that Taiwan is part of China and also rejected the [[one country, two systems]] model proposed by the PRC. Instead, she said that "Republic of China, Taiwan" already is an independent country and that Beijing must "face reality".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/15/tsai-ing-wen-says-china-must-face-reality-of-taiwans-independence |title=Tsai Ing-wen says China must 'face reality' of Taiwan's independence |website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date=15 January 2020 |access-date=4 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203232346/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/15/tsai-ing-wen-says-china-must-face-reality-of-taiwans-independence |archive-date=3 February 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>