Republic of China on Taiwan () is a political term as well as discourse regarding the present status of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

. It is proposed by former

President of the Republic of China The president of the Republic of China, now often referred to as the president of Taiwan, is the head of state of the Republic of China (ROC), as well as the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The position once had ...

Lee Teng-hui Lee Teng-hui (; 15 January 192330 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and economist who served as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under Constitution of the Republic of China, the 1947 C ...

, the first locally-born president (i.e., the first to have been born on Taiwan). During his presidential tenure in 1995, Lee visited his alma mater

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and mentioned this term for the first time when delivering an Olin Lecture.Text of Lee's Cornell address
, TAIWAN INFO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1995-6-16 The term is one of several regarding the Republic of China, and is not exactly about

Taiwanese independence The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of an independent and sovereign Taiwanese state, as opposed to Chinese unification or the status quo in Cross-Strait relations. Currently, Tai ...

. The term was later included in the

Four-Stage Theory of the Republic of China The Four-Stage Theory of the Republic of China or the Theory of the Four Stages of the Republic of China is a viewpoint proposed by Chen Shui-bian, the President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008, in 2005. It is a viewpoint regarding the ...

as the third stage from 1988 to 2000 by President Lee's successor

Chen Shui-bian Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...

. During Chen's administration, the phrase was used in an initial application for UN membership in 2000, but the term was replaced with other expressions in 2002 and 2006 applications and has not been used since.

Background

Before Lee Teng-hui coined the term, the officials of the Republic of China had always used the state's official name "Republic of China". Therefore, the term was regarded as a breakthrough. In regards to the origin of the term, Lee explained in 2005 during a lecture in that, following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

's forces temporarily occupied the

island of Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territor ...

under the direction of

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the United States-led Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. It issued SCAP Directives (alias SCAPIN, SCAP Index Number) to the Japanese government, aiming to suppress its "milit ...

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...

, and because both the

Treaty of San Francisco The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It w ...

and the

Treaty of Taipei The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (), formally the Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan () and commonly known as the Treaty of Taipei (), was a peace treaty between Japan and the Republic of China (ROC) signed in Taipei, Taiwan o ...

concluded afterwards did not explicitly specify to whom Japan renounced the sovereignty of Taiwan, the legal status of Taiwan has become undetermined, and that's why he coined the term "Republic of China on Taiwan".

References

{{Cross-Strait relations Politics of Taiwan Cross-Strait relations

Background

See also

References