Analysis: What Did Lai Mean With His National Day Gala Remarks?

TaiwanPlus News

President Lai Ching-te's National Day gala speech emphasized the history of the Republic of China, which predates the People's Republic of China. Political scientist Ja Ian Chong breaks down the speech for TaiwanPlus.

Transcript

00:00Could you tell me first, where are Lai's comments coming from, and are they in line with previous

00:04president's statements?

00:06So Lai's comments really come from the very entangled history of Taiwan, the Republic

00:12of China, and the People's Republic of China.

00:14It also brings up questions of what you think China is or is not.

00:18So there is the view that the ROC, the Republic of China, established in 1912, predates the

00:29People's Republic of China, established in 1949.

00:33That is a historical fact.

00:35I think where Lai would be more similar to presidents, really starting from Li Teng-hui

00:43in the 90s, but including Ma Ying-jeou, et cetera, would be to insist on Taiwan and so

00:51the Republic of China, Taiwan, being distinct and separate, not subordinate to the People's

00:58Republic of China.

00:59There tends to be confusion over the formal name Republic of China, Taiwan, and China.

01:04China as a cultural and political entity pre-existed before the ROC and the PRC came about.

01:14There was a China.

01:15It's just that the PRC today wants to claim that history.

01:18One of the concerns about Lai as president was that he might make provocative statements

01:22towards China.

01:23Would you consider this one of them?

01:25I don't think it's provocative, but I think there are two things going on.

01:31One is there is some confusion, and secondly, there has been an ongoing effort to paint

01:38Lai as provocative and dangerous by the PRC, but others as well.

01:43So where the confusion lies is I've seen a lot of the reporting surrounding Lai's speech

01:49saying that Taiwan is...it's a statement about Taiwan's sovereignty and that Taiwan

01:59is not part of China, that he's rejecting China.

02:02So this gets to what I mentioned earlier about what you think China is.

02:05If you think China is exclusively the People's Republic of China, then by saying that Taiwan

02:10is not subordinate, I suppose one view would be to say, well, that's provocative to Beijing.

02:15But Beijing finds many things that they don't find consistent with their own narrative provocative.

02:21Now these were just comments that he made leading up to Taiwan's National Day.

02:26When can we expect a reaction from Beijing?

02:28And do you think that he'll continue to make these sort of statements at the actual National

02:32Day speech?

02:34I think Lai will continue with these comments because they draw a line of consistency between

02:40himself and Taiwan, and at least to Ma Ying-jeou, this non-mutual subordination between the

02:47ROC and the PRC, this idea that Taiwan is a distinct entity which has truth to it in

02:54so far as Beijing does not rule Taiwan, it is unable to impose its writ on Taiwan.

02:59So that is an empirical fact.

03:02Now to sort of draw that continuity also allows Lai to demonstrate that he is actually not

03:09being provocative.

03:10I think the bigger response will probably be to his double-tenth National Day speech

03:16on October 10th, right?

03:19And that's perhaps when we will see a more fully formed response from Beijing and efforts

03:25to sort of really shape the narrative.

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