The following is my attempt to clear up what I believe to be a number of common misconceptions about the Republic of China, the Kuomintang, and Taiwan. It is based on a mix of anecdotal personal knowledge and research on the topic. I intend to edit and add to this page over time.
Taiwan, The Republic of China, and the Kuomintang are all the same thing
“Taiwan” can refer to either the island itself or the conception of an independent, Taiwanese nation. The Republic of China is the official name used by the Taiwanese state and represents its claim to being the legitimate government of China. Of note is that officials in Taiwan are cautious about using different names in an attempt to avoid antagonizing their mainland counterparts by implying the existence of an independent Taiwanese nation. The Kuomintang is the political party which founded and controlled the Republic of China for the majority of its existence. While still in existence today, the party has faced defeat in the last three national election cycles against the Democratic People’s Party. (sometimes referred to as the Green Party)
It’s pronounced “Kwoh-min-tahng”
It’s pronounced “Gwoh-min-dahng”. The conventional spelling is the result of the Wade-Giles Mandarin romanization scheme which uses apostrophes to represent voiced consonants. This convention is often ignored and as a result the “g” and “d” sounds are depicted as their unvoiced counterparts “k” and “t”. This is unfortunately the official spelling as Taiwan uses the Wade-Giles scheme for romanization.
There is no Taiwanese language/Mandarin is not used in Taiwan
These are opposite conceptions but I’ve heard both. Many Taiwanese speak both Mandarin and Taiwanese. Taiwanese itself is a dialect of Hokkien, a language spoken primarily in Fujian province, where many of the Chinese who settled in Taiwan originated. Following the retreat of the KMT to the island, Mandarin was promoted as the primary language of Taiwan and was taught in schools in place of Taiwanese. As a result of this, many Taiwanese are bilingual, with Taiwanese less likely to be spoken (or even known) by younger generations.
The Han Chinese are the indigenous population of Taiwan
Taiwan has its own indigenous population who are of Austronesian origin. The majority of those who make up the population of modern Taiwan are of Han Chinese descent and descend either from Chinese settlers on the island beginning mainly in the nineteenth century or those who fled with the KMT following the Chinese civil war.
China was a democracy under the Kuomintang
This is partially true. While the Republic of China in its early years was a democracy, this period was short-lived, ending after former Qing dynasty general and first president of the ROC Yuan Shikai dissolved the republic and declared the creation of the Empire of China, an even shorter-lived constitutional monarchy which Yuan again dissolved due to it’s massive unpopularity. When the party again rose to prominence after several decades of de facto warlord control, it was under Chiang Kai-Shek. Following the KMT’s doctrine of “party tutelage” elections under Chiang were suspended with the stated intention of educating and mobilizing the Chinese public in preparation for democracy.1 Violence was frequently used to suppress political dissent, most notoriously during the April 12th incident, during which left-wing protesters were fired on by gangsters acting on orders by Chiang, (through criminal connections he had made in the city) and the February 28th incident during which rioting Taiwanese protestors were fired on by government forces, killing thousands. Taiwan’s first direct democratic election did not come until 1996 as the result of decades of attempts at democratic reform.
Sun Yat-Sen was a communist/proto-communist/socialist
This one is a little more interpretive. Sun Yat-Sen is hailed a hero of both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. In the communist tradition, Sun is seen as a proto-communist revolutionary who laid the groundwork for proletarian revolution. In his writings, he demonstrates an awareness of socialist thought and advocated for the nationalization of land ownership and several industries. During communications with socialist thinkers, he identified himself as a socialist. However, Sun did not speak of any such plan to address the issue of capital, and in fact actively stated his plans to stimulate private industry and encourage economic competition through his economic policies.2
Chinese reunification, under nationalist rule, is a popular position in Taiwan
Hardly. Many in the West associate Taiwan with the Kuomintang and regard it as it was seven decades ago, the rightful government-in-exile of China. In reality, most in Taiwan hold themselves as a part of a separate national consciousness than that of mainland China and do not wish for reunification under any banner. As time passes and living memory of Chinese identity fades, many in Taiwan consider themselves exclusively Taiwanese.
Sources
1F. Gilbert Chan, China At The Crossroads: Nationalists And Communists, 1927-1949, published 1981
2Martin Bernal, “Chinese Socialism before 1913”, Modern China’s Search for a Political Form, Oxford University press, 1969
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