Taiwan’s Chinese Reunification Council “Ceases to Function”

Taiwan’s president, Chen Shui-bian, abolished a council charged with reunifying Taiwan and the People’s Republic on Monday. The Communist regime in Beijing raged all day Tuesday about the dire consequences. All of this is a lot of fuss over a body that hasn’t met since April 1999 and had its budget slashed to the local equivalent of US$31.

The entire episode has the makings of a comic opera. However, the stakes are about as high as they get in global politics. Taiwan has been de facto independent from China since 1949 when Chiang Kai-Shek led his Nationalists into exile after losing a civil war to Chairman Mao. Before that, the island was a Japanese possession from 1895 to 1945. So whether Taiwan is historically part of China is dubious at best. Both the Beijing government and the Taipei regime insist that there is but one China, and they both represent it – a fiction convenient to both.

Taiwan has done quite well for itself, and the local population (who were already on the island when Generalissimo Chiang turned up) sees little reason not to take up an existence that is independent in law as well as in fact. President Chen earlier this year saids “It’s [the] proper time now to consider seriously the abolition of the National Unification Council and the Guidelines for National Unification, to express the Taiwan identity.” This, he said, might take the form of a new application to the UN for membership as Taiwan, and there could be a redrafting of the constitution to remove reference to reunification. Here’s how the Taiwanese government translated what President Chen said to a National Security Meeting on Monday:

“The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be earmarked for it, and its personnel must return to their original posts. The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply. In accordance with procedures, this decision will be transmitted to the Executive Yuan for notice.”