Let me state upfront: the concept of superordinate and subordinate categories is extremely important to me, as it is a foundational value in the introduction to logic.
Even though it’s summer vacation, my nephew still has to attend summer school. Shortly after he returned from school this afternoon, he brought up that his teacher had stated in class that Taiwan is a country.
I asked him: “Then do you think people from Kinmen count as Taiwanese?”
Originally, I planned to wait for him to say that Kinmenese are Taiwanese, and then ask him whether Hawaiians are North Americans. Unexpectedly, he was even more direct and simply said: “Kinmen belongs to the mainland.”
At this point, I felt three crows fly over my head…
Thinking carefully, you send your children to school, handing them over to a group of teachers whose average intelligence isn’t particularly high, yet who are eager to instill their own ideologies into the students. It’s no wonder that society is becoming increasingly chaotic due to political differences.
The island of Taiwan has never been a country. Even the Indigenous Dadu Kingdom was only a multi-tribal confederacy occupying central Taiwan, and that was not a country. Furthermore, just ten thousand years ago, the main island of Taiwan was connected to the mainland, and the Hualien-Taitung coast was part of the mainland’s coastline.
You can argue that Taiwan has no connection with the People’s Republic of China, but you cannot deny the overall fact that the Qing Empire was the first nation to formally rule the entire island of Taiwan, Japan colonized Taiwan by means of war, and the land was finally taken back by the Republic of China.
Read More: Taiwan’s international legal status is legitimately owned by the Republic of China.
Taiwan has never been a country, because the island is currently territory under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China.
Taiwan Province is not a country; the Republic of China is the main body of the country! Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and Penghu, is all territory of the Republic of China.
Honestly, I am not against the formation of a new nation—for Taiwan independence advocates, that would be the concept of Taiwan independence—but I truly believe the name “Republic of Taiwan” is selfish, utterly stupid, and beyond redemption. All Taiwan independence advocates are fools!
A Chinese Federation, however, might be something I could consider.
Because you can never deny that there are only three major groups of people on the island of Taiwan: Indigenous Peoples (Austronesian) from the mainland and Southeast Asia, Japanese Imperial Subjects who anonymously hid in Taiwan after the defeat, continuing to enjoy large amounts of land and property, and Han Chinese from the Chinese mainland.
So, which one are you?