Has Taiwan Never Been A Country In History?

David Lu of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECRO) in San Francisco, a branch of Taiwan's officially unofficial representative office in the US, post an article in San Jose Mercury News regarding the issue of Taiwan entering UN (United Nations' exclusion of Taiwan is unjust). Some readers commented and claimed that "Taiwan has never been a country in the history".

In rebuttal, I post an article:

1) raventhorn: "Fact is, Taiwan NEVER represented itself in any treaty negotiations or signed any treaties. It was always considered as a part of some other country's territorial administration."

2) Alvin Ding: '"Taiwan" was never be a country in history'

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These are incorrect statements. In her history, Taiwan established herself as an independent country at least twice, and exercised her sovereignty right through treaties numerous times.

In 1664, Cheng Jing (鄭經), son of Cheng cheng-gong (鄭成功), founded Tong-Ning Kingdom (東寧王國) in Taiwan. The kingdom has her own government, own army, own social system, and own business interactions with surrounding countries. It also has other own diplomatic relationships with other powers, in which Cheng was called "The King of Tyawan." (Taiwan was sometimes spelled as Tyawan at that time)

In 1895, Republic of Taiwan was established in Taiwan by Liu Jing-Song (劉景崧). It is the first republic country in Asia.

Aside from the above 2 official establishments, Taiwanese had exercised their sovereignty right independently as a country. For example, by signing treaties with other countries, as what Michael mentioned in his earlier post:

"the Qing denied controlling Taiwan on several occasions, and foreign powers negotiated directly with local aborigine leaders."

The countries who signed treaties with Taiwanese include USA, after USA marine was defeated (and one of USA Civil War Generals killed) by Taiwan aborigine (in around 1780, I believe).

Following raventhorn's own words: 'Treaties largely make up the foundation of "de jure" sovereignty,' then Taiwan has been an independent sovereignty many times in her history.

These are historical facts that shouldn't be withheld from the readers. I have to agree with Michael: "Raventhorn's 'rebuttal' sounds credible only because he withholds key facts from the reader."

Btw, David Lu's article is full of errors, not only in facts but also in English grammar.