(The China Post Editorial, April 2, 2007 reproduced below with permission).
Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state. But three academics who have drafted a "second republic" constitution do not seem to think so. If they do, they shouldn't have written a self contradictory passage in the preamble of the draft constitution, the one which President Chen Shui-bian believes is "timely," "apt" and "viable."
That passage says the Republic of China was founded in 1911. That is a slip of the pen, perhaps. The Republic of China was proclaimed on Jan. 1, 1912. The Chinese Revolution that toppled the Manchu Qing dynasty and put an end to China's monarchical rule took place in 1911. Practically everyone in Taiwan who has learned history knows that. Are the three constitutional scholars "old professors" who are supposed to be absent-minded? Or are they trying to rewrite Chinese history?
That aside, the professors wrote into their draft constitution Taiwan and China are two different countries and the people in the former have the final say in their country's future. Any change to the political relationship between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China must be decided by negotiations between the two sides and subject to approval of the people of Taiwan, they added.
Do they have to state in the constitution the universally acknowledged inalienable right of the people to determine the future of their country? We don't think the constitution of any country in the world makes mention of that self determination right. But the professors seem to forget no independent, sovereign state has to negotiate a change in its political relationship with any other country. A sovereign state makes decisions on any change in foreign relations by and for itself. In fact, there is no political relationship between two independent, sovereign states that needs to be changed. Negotiations are necessary between a suzerain and a vassal or between the central government and a province, if they want to change their relationship. Do the three learned professors regard the relationship between China and Taiwan as one between a suzerain and a vassal or between a sovereign state and one of its provinces as Beijing claims?