In Taiwan's political history, the term "Second Republic of China" () is used in historical research on the Republic of China (Taiwan) and was first proposed by Japanese political scientist ; it may be useful in describing Taiwan's democratization and the 'Taiwanization of the Republic of China.'
The period referred to as "Second Republic of China" refers to Taiwan after May 1, 1991; Lee Teng-hui's government abolished Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion and promulgated the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China. This centered on the Chinese identity and distinguished it from the "First Republic of China" () before May 1, 1991, which was Kuomintang's one-party system. The state agency that was established afterwards actually represents the Taiwanese people, not the mainland Chinese, and the legitimacy of the state power's rule also comes from the mandate of the Taiwanese people.
Definition of the concept Basically, the target of the concept "Second Republic of China" refers to the Republic of China after May 1, 1991. After this, because the Republic of China government terminated the Period of mobilization for the suppression of Communist rebellion and abolished the Temporary Provisions, and at the same time promulgated the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, therefore, the ROC "constructed state organs that only represent the people of Taiwan, and the legitimacy of state power and governance only comes from the authorization of the people of Taiwan, completely unrelated to the people of mainland China". In the words of , "The First Republic of China born of the Xinhai Revolution was in mainland China, not in Taiwan; today's Second Republic of China is in Taiwan, not in mainland China".
Taiwanization of the Republic of China In the book Taiwan: Divided Nation and Democratization (台灣：分裂國家與民主化 / 1994), Japanese scholar Masahiro Wakabayashi, when discussing the process of democratization of Taiwan's political system, proposed a set of explanatory analytical concepts, considering that the authoritarian system in Taiwan during the rule of the two Chiangs had the following characteristics:
Quasi-Leninist party-state "Legal orthodoxy" (法統) system Ethnic dual structure of political elites Dual clientelism
However, after a series of changes and reform measures starting in the mid-1970s, he made the following predictions regarding possible changes to these characteristics after the 1990s:
Mitigation or breakdown of Kuomintang political monopoly → "LDP-ization" of the Kuomintang (becoming a "one-party dominant" system politically) De-civil-war-ization and liberalization → "Second Republic of China System" Breaking the dual structure → Taiwanization Breaking the dual structure → "Money politics" in parliamentary elections, "factionalization" in parliamentary operations
Among these, regarding the second point, in Wakabayashi's own words:
After the lifting of martial law in Taiwan, in May 1991, the "Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion", which essentially froze the Constitution, were abolished. Immediately following, due to the expansion of student movements in Taipei, the "" was also repealed. These all formalized the transition away from Taiwan's long-term civil war stance with the mainland and the Chinese Communist Party. For Taiwan's political system, democratization meant "de-civil-war-ization". At the end of 1991, the "Ten-Thousand-Year Congress" finally retired, and the entity of "legal orthodoxy" thus vanished.
At this point, what inevitably appeared directly in Taiwan's political order was the "Constitution of the Republic of China". However, this law was drafted in the 1940s with "all China" as its subject, so it clearly could not be applied to Taiwan as it was. Thus, the political situation quickly centered around constitutional issues (territorial scope, national title, central government system, etc.). "Democratization by installment" entered its final phase = "constitutional reform", where the Kuomintang's "constitutional amendment" and the Democratic Progressive Party's "drafting a new constitution" = "Taiwan independence" claims competed in the market of ideas. Wakabayashi then stated in the subsection titled "Second Republic of China System":
If "constitutional reform" were "drafting a new constitution" as claimed by the opposition party, it would naturally be so; even if it ended with "constitutional amendment" as claimed by the Kuomintang, it had nothing to do with the opinions of the populace of mainland China, which was the original target of the source of law for national political institutions, the "Constitution of the Republic of China". In this regard, this work by Wakabayashi seems to be the first time the concept of "Second Republic of China" appeared in relevant literature, referring to the change in the nature of state power in Taiwan's state apparatus following democratic procedures.
Lee Teng-hui's adoption of the "Second Republic of China system" After Lee Teng-hui was elected as the first directly elected president of the Republic of China in 1996, he stated publicly on several occasions: "Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country, its national title is the Republic of China" or "The Republic of China is a sovereign country, its territorial scope is in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu". On July 9, 1999, during an interview with Deutsche Welle (see Two-State Theory), Lee further clarified his position:
Since the 1991 constitutional amendment, cross-strait relations have been defined as state-to-state, or at least special state-to-state relations, rather than an internal "One China" relationship between a legitimate government and a rebel group, or a central government and a local government. Therefore, your mention that the Beijing government views Taiwan as a "renegade province" completely ignores historical and legal facts.
When commenting on the nationalist discourse of the Kuomintang under Lee Teng-hui's leadership, political scientist Lin Chia-lung used the concept of "Second Republic of China" to describe the Taiwanese state system established by Lee, and stated that during an interview with Lee Teng-hui on October 19, 1998 for research purposes, Lee directly raised the concept of "Second Republic of China".
Asia's Strategy In July 2000, after stepping down from the presidency, Lee Teng-hui co-authored the book Asia's Strategy (亞洲的智略) with Japanese writer . In this book, Lee systematically proposed for the first time the idea that the Republic of China in Taiwan had moved past the era of rule by the two Chiangs and transformed into a "Second Republic".
Lee emphasized in the book that the Republic of China in Taiwan can roughly be divided into two periods. The period of rule by Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo was the first period, because the constitutions were drawn up during the Chinese Civil War. As for the present, Taiwan's constitution has not only undergone major amendments, but the former Legislative Yuan has also been fully re-elected, senior legislators have retired, the National Assembly has been streamlined, Taiwan Province has been "streamlined", and the president is directly elected by the people. Having experienced these major changes, Taiwan's constitution and government structure have been reorganized, which is the Second Republic.
Lee further pointed out in the book that the Republic of China is a sovereign independent country, and the Second Republic of Taiwan's Republic of China is naturally also a sovereign independent country, with a solid theoretical foundation.
"Taiwan's 21st Century National Goals" published by Taiwan Advocates In 2002, Taiwan Advocates (群策會), chaired by Lee Teng-hui, gathered more than 30 experts and scholars and held more than 20 meetings over six months to draft ten major "Taiwan 21st Century National Goals", the first of which was "Establishing Taiwan's national identity". In the section titled "Composing the 'Second Republic' with 'General Will'", the Research Group of "Taiwan 21st Century National Goals" again used the concept of "Second Republic of China" and pointed out:
In 1991, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion were abolished; Taiwan recognized the existence of the People's Republic of China, and declared that the governing power of the Republic of China only reached Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. In 1991 and 1992, the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan were fully re-elected; the people of Taiwan directly elected their own members of parliament, and the symbolic and substantive "legal orthodoxy" of the Republic of China broke from then on. In 1996, the people of Taiwan directly elected the president; Taiwan's politics "transformed" from authoritarianism to democracy, and the overall situation was finally settled. More importantly, after six constitutional amendments, the democratic spirit of popular sovereignty realized the construction of the Republic of China's "Second Republic". From then on, Taiwan no longer returned to traditional China's cycle of order and chaos; walking toward democracy is walking toward the world, officially severing ties with feudal China.
Application of this concept by relevant scholars and politicians
Relevant scholars In fact, after Lee Teng-hui proposed the concept of "Second Republic of China" in Taiwan, many scholars successively began to adopt this concept to explain Taiwan's current political system. For example, Ruan Ming, former advisor to Hu Yaobang, who acquired ROC nationality in 2002, once wrote about the fluidity of the concept of "Republic of China". He said: Taiwan's national title today is "Republic of China". "Republic of China" is a changing historical concept. The Republic of China born of the Xinhai Revolution was in mainland China, not in Taiwan; at that time, Taiwan was a Japanese colony ceded by the Qing dynasty government. After World War II, Japan was defeated and relinquished Taiwan, which was occupied by the ROC government on behalf of the Allies post-war. Therefore, from 1945 to 1949, the ROC government once ruled both sides of the Strait, mainland China and Taiwan. In 1949, the People's Republic of China was born in mainland China, and the ROC government abandoned mainland China and moved to Taiwan, forming the historical fact of the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China coexisting on opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait.
In addition, he also adopted Lee Teng-hui's concept of "Second Republic of China" to describe Taiwan's current political status. He stated: On May 1, 1991, the ROC government terminated the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion, abolished the Temporary Provisions, and promulgated the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the ROC, effectively confirming that the ROC's territorial sovereignty is in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, not in mainland China. Through direct election of Taiwanese parliamentary representatives and the Taiwanese president by the Taiwanese people, followed by party turnover and peaceful transfer of power, Taiwan has realized national democratization and localization. This is the Second Republic of China. That is to say, the First Republic of China born of the Xinhai Revolution was in mainland China, not in Taiwan; today's Second Republic of China is in Taiwan, not in mainland China. Besides Ruan Ming, other scholars have also begun using the concept of "Second Republic of China" to describe Taiwan's current political system, such as Wu Chih-chung from the Department of Political Science at Soochow University.
Politicians from the Democratic Progressive Party