The Republic of China—Striding Into Its 2nd Century
The Centenary of Asia’s First Republic
Celebrating the Achievement of Its Founding Ideals
Sun Yat-sen (center, front row) assumes office as the Provisional President of the Republic of China in Nanjing on January 1, 1912. (Courtesy of Kuomintang Party Archives)
This is the 100th year of Asia’s first republic—The Republic of China, which now in Taiwan fully embodies the core ideals of its founding father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen—establishing a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” ROC citizens in Taiwan today enjoy a vibrant multiparty democracy, full freedom of speech, a resilient economy, vigorous social welfare and human rights safeguards and utmost respect for the law.
Dreams of achieving this motivated Dr. Sun over a century ago to lead the revolutionary effort culminating in an uprising on October 10, 1911 in Wuhan, Hubei Province on the Chinese mainland. It marked the end of nearly two millennia of imperial rule in China and set the stage for establishing a new republic on January 1, 1912.
From the outset, many of the core founding ideals of this young republic—democracy, prosperity, territorial integrity and social justice—were severely tested by Chinese warlords and Japan’s invasion of the northeastern provinces. Soon the ROC found itself one of the Allied Powers staunchly resisting Japan’s military incursion into the Asia continent during World War II.
The ceremony for Taiwan’s retrocession to the ROC on October 25, 1945, held at the Taipei Assembly Hall (today’s Zhongshan Hall), marking the surrender of Japanese forces in Taiwan at the end of World War II. (Courtesy of the Academia Historica)
After Japan’s defeat, the restoration of China’s territories that Japan occupied during the war and the return of Taiwan, the achievement of peace, prosperity and social welfare for the entire nation remained thwarted by several years of civil war and war-induced hyperinflation. Nevertheless, between 1912 and 1949, the ROC achieved a republican form of government, elected a national legislature and drafted the constitution that governs the nation to this very day.
It was only after relocation of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949 due to civil war on the Chinese mainland that the founding ideals of the republic could finally be realized throughout the territories it governed. Elections of local government officials began, and in 1987, martial law was lifted, along with restrictions on publishing newspapers and forming political parties.
Over the next few years, the ROC Constitution was amended, elections for every seat in the Legislative Yuan were held, and in 1996, the direct election of the president began. In 2000 and 2008, executive power at the highest level was peacefully transferred between different political parties, thus attaining Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s dream of a modern democratic republic.
During an October 7, 1986 interview with Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, President Chiang Ching-kuo (left) remarks that martial law would be lifted. His English secretary Ma Ying-jeou (center) later described this historic moment as “electric.” (Courtesy of the Academia Historica)
The other aspects of his vision pertaining to the public welfare were also realized through the successful introduction of economic policies on behalf of the public welfare, such as the land to the tiller reform, the Ten Major Infrastructure Projects, implementation of compulsory public education, and an industrial policy that encouraged growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises as well as Taiwan’s world-famous high-tech sector.
The result was Taiwan’s “economic miracle,” which transformed the economy from an agricultural to a service and knowledge-based one. Implementation of the National Health Insurance program and a citizen’s pension program allow the Taiwan public to be well cared for. The rights of women, children, indigenous peoples and the disadvantaged are now safeguarded, and the ROC has signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Thus, having achieved “government of the people, by the people and for the people” by the end of its first century of national development, the ROC embodies the key ideals behind its founding.
The first structure of its kind in the world, the EcoARK was built in 2010 out of 1.5 million recycled PET bottles to showcase green, low-carbon construction and embody the global effort to reduce, reuse and recycle. (GA Photos Group)
Ongoing Developments
Nevertheless, further national development remains an ongoing process. Since coming to office in May 2008, the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou has launched programs and enacted legislation to foster cutting-edge and emerging industries that can take the economy to a new level, to streamline the executive branch and make it more responsive to people’s needs, to enable local governments to consolidate their resources and provide better service, to fight corruption and to promote the welfare of disadvantaged groups.
Under the Ma administration, the ROC has worked to turn a new page in the previously tense relationship between Taiwan and mainland China by resuming institutionalized negotiations between the two sides. He also announced an initiative of “flexible diplomacy” whereby the two sides of the Strait no longer compete for diplomatic partners and where Taiwan gains more substantive and meaningful participation in international organizations and bodies.
An airliner from mainland China lands at Taipei Songshang Airport on July 4, 2008, carrying the first-ever group of tourists to fly directly from the mainland to Taipei. (Yeh Ming-yuan)
As of December 2010, the ROC’s Straits Exchange Foundation had negotiated 15 groundbreaking accords with its mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, which have greatly improved cross-strait relations in areas such as transportation and shipping, crime-fighting, movements of people and economic interchange.
World leaders have expressed appreciation for the trend toward enhanced regional stability that has resulted from this new spirit of cooperation. In February 2009, for example, the European Parliament passed a resolution affirming that it “welcomes the significant reduction of tension in the Taiwan Straits area and the ongoing dialogue between Beijing and Taipei.” In the autumn of 2010, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated that signing the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) will foster closer cross-strait relations over the long term, reduce the possibility of any misunderstandings or friction between the two sides and ensure rapprochement will positively affect the region as a whole. Meanwhile, in a speech delivered at the U.S. state department in January of 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised the “historic completion” of the ECFA and called for more dialogue and exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
An ROC representative attended the World Health Assembly in May 2009 as an observer, marking the first participation by the ROC in a specialized agency of the United Nations since being forced to withdraw from the world body in 1971. (Courtesy of the Department of Health)
Looking to the next century of national development
In his 2011 New Year’s Day message to the nation, President Ma set out goals toward which the nation should aspire in the coming century. It must continue developing as a living embodiment of all that is excellent in Chinese culture as well as the best of Western culture, inspired by an expansive oceanic spirit to match Taiwan’s oceanic geography. As well, it must strive to be a paragon of democracy, serving in particular as an inspiration to people worldwide. Its people must harness their talents to become a global force for innovation, and it must be a nation admired for embracing the world as family and its dedication to the advancement of well-being for all.
These are admittedly lofty ideals and goals, but the citizens of the ROC have proven equal to the daunting challenges of their nation’s founding a century ago, and clearly possess the confidence and wherewithal to achieve such goals and create a resplendent second century for Asia’s first and most remarkable republic.
