Taiwanese Centennial

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Taiwanese Centennial

China is celebrating on Monday a century since the Xinhai Revolution, which ended the last imperial dynasty, with a message of the president of People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao who called for reunification with Taiwan, which has been governed for the last six decades by Chinese nationalists.
In his address, Hu Jintao called for a rejuvenation of the nation a century after the revolution that ended two thousand years of imperial Chinese rule. The president invoked the first president of China, Sun Yat-sen, and his ideals of “rejuvenation of the Chinese people.”
President Hu reminded that Chinese people on both sides of Taiwan Strait share the same history, and common values, the same blood and the same prosperity of their countries. For that reason, he said, there is no justification why the two nations would not search a peaceful reunification.
He continued by saying that the common goal of the two states should be the prosperity of the Chinese nation. On Sunday, during the celebration, the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin appeared in public, dismissing the reports that his heart was failing and that he was very seek. The 85-year-old former president sang the national anthem along with the other leaders of the Communist party.
The 100th anniversary of the Chinese Republic was celebrated also in Taiwan, where the president of this country Ma Ying-jeou also invoked the first president Sun Yat-sen, but singled out the values of this president that differ from the ones advocated by the Chinese party on the mainland.
President Ma reminded that Sun Yat-sen’s ideals were directed toward democracy, freedom, and fair distribution of wealth. He urged the Chinese leaders to steadily walk in that direction.
The anniversary continued in Taipei with military ceremonies, that lasting an hour, during which time the small island displayed its missiles, tanks and fighter jets.
The centennial comes at a time when the People’s Republic of China warned the United States that selling new weapons to the Taiwanese army would damage the mutual relations between the two economic super-powers.
In September China expressed its disapproval of the decision made by the United States to upgrade the Taiwanese F-16 fleet of fighter jets. The United States refused to sell Taiwan 66 pieces of the F-16 C/D version of the fighter jet.
Ma Ying-jeou is considered one of the presidents of Taiwan that brought the mutual relations between China and Taiwan to the lowest since 1949, when the two countries separated.
President Ma explained that the purchase of the F-16 C/Ds was not necessarily meant to improve the defense of the country, which could not withstand an invasion of the Communist country if it were to come to this, but to give Taipei a leverage, that is to give him a strength position.
Even though it protested the arms deal with Taiwan, the tone was far less aggressive this year because Chinese vice president Xi Jinping is preparing to meet the United States officials.
The Chinese republic was established in October 10, 1911, on the occasion of the Xinhai Revolution that caused the fall of the Qing dynasty, which led China from 1644 to 1912. The revolution started in 1911 but ended in 1912, when the last emperor Puyi abdicated on February 12, 1912.
The leader of the revolution was Sun Yat-sen, who presided over the Kuomingtang party of China, that is “the Chinese Nationalist Party.” Kuomingtang is the party which led the Republic of China established in Taiwan after the civil war.

Chinese Centennial

The Nationalist party of China is based on three principles, which Ma Ying-jeou reminded in his speech: freedom, democracy and the fair distribution of the national wealth.
Another very important feature of the party is the anti-Communist views, which makes it all the more intriguing that Beijing would celebrate the republic’s founders.
In November 1931, Mao Zedong founded the Chinese Soviet Republic, which lasted at first for only six years, and was at odds with the Kuomingtang vision of China.
In 1949, Kuomingtang retreated on the island of Taiwan, where their state continued to exist as the Republic of China. The Communist party built the People’s Republic of China on the mainland.
The United Nations recognized the Republic of China as the sole representative of the Chinese people until 1971, when the Communist regime took advantage of the Cold War and convinced the countries members of the Security Council to vote Resolution 2758 by which People’s Republic of China was recognized as the representative of the Chinese people, while Sun Yat-sen’s Republic of China was denied UN membership. African votes were very important on that occasion, which would explain the renewed interest of China for this continent, where the access to resources is also backed by very strong historical ties.
The Republic of China considers that it is the representative of all Chinese people, including the republic of Mongolia, whose admission to the UN it blocked in 1960s.
In the past few decades, Taiwan has filed many applications to be received as a member state of the United Nations, but they were all vetoed by China.
In the attempt to win the Chinese benevolence, Taipei renounced its claim to be the sole representative of the Chinese people, and the claim over the Chinese land. More than that, the country changed its name from the Republic of China to Taiwan.
Steps have been made toward reconciliation but it is hard to believe that they will result in a solution similar to that of Hong Kong or Macao. Communist China refuses the idea of two states and one people while Taiwanese Kuomingtang cannot come to terms to the Communist ideology.
That is why the celebration in Beijing seems more like an attempt to take away from the Taiwanese the main symbols on which the small republic in the island is based.

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