It is about the authority, not territorial status

It is about authority, not territorial status: Tsia Ying-wen's ROC=Taiwan under Taiwan Relations Act

Ajin's comment "the US does not care if it call itself ROC or anything else"[1] on Liberty Times on October 13 revealed an ingenious design in Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), in which the US integrated ROC, a Chinese government-in-exile recognized by the US, and Taiwan, a de facto governing authority into one legal term. 

Section 15.2 of TRA[2] defines Taiwan comprising a territory, natural persons, legal persons, and ROC, which was recognized by the United States as the Republic of China before January 1, 1979 and its successor governing authority, or "Taiwan governing authority (TGA)" more precisely, depends on whatever needed.

For the Republic of China refers to the "republic government" representing China, Taiwan in Tsai Ying-wen's definition of "ROC=Taiwan and Taiwan=ROC" is accordingly a "government," not a territory. 

It will become clearer when we consider the factor of time in.  To the US, TRA confirmed that TGA has replaced and succeeded ROC passé since 1979.  We may see ROC passé = Taiwan (TGA) at present.  The critical point is that the question of Chinese representativeness has been decided.  ROC could no longer represent China.  TGA, whatever it calls, can stands for Formosa and the Pescadores only.  One thing is for sure that China does not enjoy the sovereignty and has not exercised jurisdiction over Taiwan.  That is how smart TRA is.

The Democratic Progressive Party, which contributed a lot to Taiwanese democracy, took democratization for "state building."  DPP made further big mistake in its "Resolution of Taiwan's Future" in 1999, in which it claimed Taiwan has already a new sovereign state due to its achievement of democracy.  KMT, together with the international society, bashed DPP without mercy and made it lose the power in 2008.  Taiwanese, by their choice, earned an irresponsible administration as MYJ is.

Paradoxically, according to the political entity and non-state approaches of TRA, Tsai's declaration could never betrayed our "statehood" for Taiwan has yet to be recognized as one.  We do not have to worry about the loss of Taiwanese sovereignty due to Tsai's one sentence, however, Ma's conclusion of a series of secret and careless agreements with Beijing may topple the status quo of Taiwan over time.

【姊妹文章】
從台灣關係法看中華民國
小英口中的「ROC＝台灣」——指的是「當局」，不是領土
It is about the authority, not territorial status

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[1]  http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2011/new/oct/13/today-o5.htm

[2]  http://www.ait.org.tw/uploads/4a/a3/4aa32aa18ebf1b04607a971d743aae96/Taiwan-Relations-Act-PL96-8-96th-congress.pdf