Taiwanese high school students could soon be rather confused by
the island’s authorities’ draft outline of history courses for
2006, which proposes dramatic alterations to the way the subject is
taught.
The document, published on Tuesday, detaches the province from
Chinese history, separating events after the Revolution of 1911
from the history of the island.
The province’s education minister said that the period of the
Republic of China belongs to Chinese history and has nothing to do
with Taiwan.
Some in the island’s media have asked whether, using this logic,
Dr Sun Yat-sen, leader of the revolution that overthrew the Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911) to end a 2,000-year-old feudal system and
respected as “Father of the Nation” by many, has now become a
foreigner.
That Taiwan’s education minister has denied its status as a
province of China in this way is widely seen as further evidence of
the Democratic Progressive Party’s growing distaste for the
island’s Chinese identity.
The draft could be read as a continuation of pro-independence
supporters’ desire for “desinification” to distance Taiwan from the
motherland.
Since Chen Shui-bian took office in 2000, promoting
“desinification” and “name rectification” policies, separatist
forces have been engaged in an attempt to remove everything from
Taiwan that conveys a connection to the mainland.
Of course, the long-standing legal reality is that Taiwan is not
an independent state but has been and still is a part of China.
The island came under the jurisdiction of Fujian
Province as early as the 12th century, and the founding of the
People’s Republic of China in 1949 only changed the country’s
government, not its scope of sovereignty – a fact recognized by the
international community.
To sever Taiwan’s history from China’s is an attempt by
separatists to blur recognition of one nation among the people, in
particular schoolchildren, and gradually dilute their sense of
being Chinese.
This can only work against the interests of people on both sides
of the straits who want peace and stability as well as
prosperity.
(China Daily November 11, 2004)