從一省到一國：從1951、1971、1991三個關鍵年代看臺灣政治變遷

From a Province to a Sovereign State —Taiwan’s Political Development as Reflected in the Three Crucial Years, 1951, 1971 and 1991

第二次世界大戰後，美國根據1943年開羅會議的承諾，協助中華民國軍事佔領臺灣，然國府在對日和約尚未締結之前，逕自把臺灣編為中華民國的一省。接著1949年因國共內戰勝敗分明，中華人民共和國成立，中華民國政府遷臺；以及1950年6月韓戰爆發後，美國為避免使臺灣淪為共黨統治，杜魯門總統宣布「臺灣地位未定」，主導和會的美、英兩國且將此一立場反映在1951年《舊金山和約》的條文中。但在冷戰情勢下，國民黨政權因美國的支持與軍經援助，保住了聯合國的中國代表権及安理會常任理事國席位，直到1971年為止。中華民國喪失聯合國席位之後，蔣經國浮上檯面擔任行政院長，藉著推動本土化與其他政經改革，維繫國民黨政權在臺灣的有效統治。
1987年解除戒嚴，1988年臺灣人李登輝繼任總統，於1990年代展開一系列憲政改革，包括終止「動員戡亂時期」、國會全面改選，不再倡言「反攻大陸」或「光復大陸」，1996年李登輝更成為首任民選總統。1999年李登輝總統界定臺灣與中國是「特殊的國與國關係」，與民進黨的「臺灣前途決議文」立場相近。2000年之後除了陳水扁總統的「一邊一國論」，現任的蔡英文總統亦堅拒「一中原則」，主張「中華民國臺灣」主權獨立，皆可視為李登輝路線的延續。一個從威權到民主的政府，有效統治墟定範固的領土與人民，加上民選總統對內對外的一再主權宣稱，展示且完成了人類歷史上「從一省演進成為一國」的案例。

After World War II, the US assisted the Republic of China occupying Taiwan according to her promise at the 1943 Cairo Conference, while the ROC government turned it into a province of China before signing a treaty of peace with Japan. The outcome of the Chinese Civil War then became clear in 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was established and the Kuomintang regime relocated to Taiwan. However, the US was unwilling to see Taiwan under Communist rule following the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. President Harry S. Truman declared the“undetermined status of Taiwan,”a position evident in the texts of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty signed by the allies. With the US support and military and economic aid, the Kuomintang regime maintained a permanent seat of the United Nations Security Council until 1971 and the representation of China under the Cold War framework. Having lost its external legitimacy afterwards, the Kuomintang regime had to win popular support through localization with internal political and economic reforms as President Chiang Ching-kuo came to power.
After the martial law was lifted in 1987 and the Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui succeeded to the presidency, the 1990s witnessed a series of constitutional reforms, including the termination of the Period of National Mobilization for the Suppression of the Communist Rebellion and the complete re-elections of the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan, and no longer advocated reclaiming or returning back to the mainland. In 1996 Lee became the first popularly elected president. Similar to the position of the Democratic Progressive Party's“Resolution on Taiwan's Future,”Lee argued that a special state-to-state relationship existed between Taiwan and China in 1999, a doctrine that since 2000 former president Chen Shui-bian’s“one country on each side”of the Taiwan Strait statement and the incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen’s rejection of“one China”principle, have continued to adhere to. A government from authoritarianism to democracy, effectively governing a defined territory and permanent population, coupled with the popularly elected presidents’sovereignty claims at home and abroad, demonstrates and completes the case of“developing from a province to a country”in human history.