ROC nationality laws

"inherent registry"

固有籍 means "inherent registry" in the sense of "registration as a matter of birth" or "status as a natural possession".

固有 is used to qualify something that "firmly" or "undoubtedly" or "originally" exists -- hence inherent, intrinsic, proper, innate, native. The term is also used in the 1929 ROC Nationality Law, and is rendered "natural possession" in the standard contemporary English translation of the 1929 law (see below).

籍 refers to a register or registry as an actual record of some form -- which could be a birth register or roll, or registry of affiliated or domiciled tribes, households, families, or individuals.

"affiliated with China's nationality"

屬 is the conventional term, found in numerous Chinese, Japanese, and Korean treaties before the existence of legally defined nationality in these countries, to mean "affiliation with" or "belonging to" a recognized entity, polity, or jurisdiction. Some early English translations render the term as "nationality" in the sense of "national affiliation".

中國 means the "middle part of a country" or the "country in the center of other countries". This name for "China" inspired "Middle Kingdom" in some older English writing. Today, "country" (國、国) would imply "state" (国家) if referring to a sovereign entity, or "nation" (国民) if referring to its people.

國籍 means "country" [state, national] registry [affiliation]" -- i.e., "nationality", which signifies belonging to a sovereign country, whether a person who owes the country allegiance in return for its protection (subject, national, citizen), or something which flies the country's flag (territory, ship).

"Chinese"

中國人 (Chungkuojen" signifies a "person of China" hence "Chinese".

"inherent nationality"

固有國籍 means "inherent nationality" in the sense of "nationality as a matter of birth" or "nationality as a natural possession".

See commentary to 1909 nationality regulations for glosses on 固有 and 國籍 (above).

"affiliated with China's nationality"

"Affiliated" and "nationality" are as before. But "China's nationality" is a lazy translation of what should be "the Republic of China's nationality", for the formal name of the state has changed. "China" may always but just "China" in English, but the name of the country in Chinese has political meanings that are lost if not closely translated.

Here, "China" is not 中國 (WG Chūngkuó, PY Zhōnguó, J Chūgoku, KC Jungkuk, V Trung Quốc) as before, but 中華 (WG Chūnghuá, PY Zhōnghuá, J Chūka, KC Chunghwa, V Trung Hoa). The former is the most common name for China, signifying only its centrality. The latter, meaning "central flower", is a more elegant sobriquet that beautifies China as the flourishing center of civilization.

"Chinese"

"Chinese" translates "Chūgokujin" (中國人、中国人 WG Chungkuojen, PY Zhongguoren, KC Jungkuk-in, V người Trung Quốc).

"China territory"

The "China" of "China territory" (中國地), meaning "China land", reflects 中國 -- the common name for "China" -- rather than 中華民國, its formal name since 1912, which uses 中華 rather than 中國 to refer to "China".

In other words, "China" in the English translation conflates 中國 and 中華民國,

The essential "China" of ROC and PRC

The country known in English as the "Republic of China" (ROC) was founded in 1912. It is still, as of this writing in 2023, an independent though territorially vastly reduced sovereign entity.

ROC's English name reflects 中華民國 (WG Chūnghuá mínkyó, PY Zhōnghuá mínguó) in Chinese. What, though, does 中華民國 signify? In other words, how should 中華民國 be parsed? As 中華民：國 -- meaning "Country (國) of the common people (民) of China (中華)"? Or as 中華：民國 -- meaning "Common people's country (民國) of China (中華)"?

The question can be answered by understanding the intent, in 1912, to establish a new government in China, to replace the dynastic imperial government of the Ching (Qing) Dynasty with a demogratic government of the "common people" (民 min). More precisely, the new government was supposed to represent China's provinces, and its several "peoples" or "(racioethnic) nations" (民族 WG méntsú, PY PY ménzú, J minzoku, KC minjok, V dân tộc), in the cooperative and harmonous manner of a "republic" that would serve the overall national interests of China as a state in the world of states. In other words, the "Republic of China" reflected the "Common people's country (民國) of China (中華)" -- or "Natinalist China", as ROC also came to be known.

Attempts by ROC to suppress communism in China in 1927 provoked resistence increased until the start of Japan's invasion of ROC in 1937, when Communist and Nationalist forces agreed to an armistice to resist Japanese aggression. Japanese forces drove Chiang Kai-shek and the ROC government from its capital at Nanking (南京 WG Nán-chīng, PY Nánjīing) into exile at Chungking (重慶, 重庆 WG Chúng-chìing, PY Chóngqìng) in the southwest of China, from which he attempted but failed to govern China. Communist forces, which had been encamped mainly in northwest provinces, continued to operate there during the war with Japan.

By 1940, Japan had helped set up and recognized Wang Jin-wei's Nationalist Government in Nanking. Both governments simply ignored ROC, which had virtually lost its effective control and jurisdiction of coastal provinces and parts of China under Communist control. While ROC joined America's declaration of war against Japan on 9 December 1945 (8 December Washington time), Japan never declared war on ROC, which by then had no standing in Japan's eyes.

In 1945, after Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers, which included ROC, Chiang Kai-shek returned to power in Nanking, and rebuilt his Nationalist Army, in order consolidate and expand his control and jurstiction within China. With no common Japanese enemy, Chiang's Nationalist Army and Mao's People's Liberation Army again became embattled, as communist forces pressed the socialist revolution toward the coastal provinces that had reverted to ROC's control after Japan surrendered.

In the meantime, ROC, as a member of the Allied Powers, accepted the surrender of Taiwan and the Pescadores, and quickly incorporated them into China as Taiwan province. This was pursuant to the conditions of surrender Japan accepted in 1945, which included the restoration of Taiwan and the Pescadores to ROC as the successor state to Ching China. Taiwan (including the Pescadores) had been part of Japan for half a century, having been ceded to Japan in 1895 as part of the settlement in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 between Japan and Ching (Qing) Dynasty China.

As a member of the Allied Powers, ROC was also permitted to establish a legation in Occupied Japan. And Japan expected to sign a Peace Treaty with the Allied Powers, including ROC, that would confirm Japan's loss of Taiwan to ROC. And this would have happened had Mao Tse-tung's People's Liberation Army not driven Chiang Kai-shek, his ROC government, and remnants of his Nationality Army off the continent, to the province of Taiwan. While retreating to Taiwan, ROC established a defense line in the Taiwan Straits, on islands that were part of Fukien (福建省 WG Fuchien, PY Fujian) province, which ROC continues to occupy and control as of this writing in 2023,

Japan's loss of Taiwan as a consequence of its defeat in the Pacific War in effect provided ROC with an escape route and refuge, which it could defend with the help of the United States Navy in the Taiwan Straits. The U.S. Navy not only bufferred ROC from an invasion of PRC forces, but prevented ROC from attempting to regain a foothold on the mainland.

ROC, as member of the Allied Powers, had minchok is question can be answered by examining

Since 1949, "China" has consisted of two rival entities, the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC), both of which, for several decades, claimed to be the sole legitimate "China", and claimed each other's territories. Today, ROC no longer claims PRC, but PRC still claims ROC, in what continues to be a battleground of recognition politics (see below).

Apart the ideological differences that divide opinion in the two countries and elsewhere, their formal names share the "China" element -- not "Chungkuo / Zhongguo" but "Chunghua / Zhonghua" (中華 J Chūka, KC chungkuk) -- a more elegant name meaning "central flower / beauty".

The "Republic of China" (ROC), founded in 1912 and still a sovereign entity as of this writing in 2023, is the English stand-in for 中華民國 (WG Chūnghuá mínkyó, PY Zhōnghuá mínguó) in Chinese. What, though, does 中華民國 signify? In other words, is 中華民國 to be parsed 中華民：國 meaning "Country of the common people of China" -- or 中華：民國 -- "Common people's country of China"?

Clues come from the name of the "New China" or "other China" established in 1949 as a result of a communist revolution in which Mao Tse-tung's People's Liberation Army drove Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government and military forces off the continuent to Taiwan province. PRC's English dub, "People's Republic of China" (PRC), reflects its Chinese name, 中華人民共和國 (中华人民共和国 PY Zhōnghuá rénmín gònghéguó, WG Chūnghuá jénmín kùnghókuó) [tonal markers omitted hereafter]. This is parsed 中華：人民：共和・國 -- meaning 中華 (China)：人民 (people)： 協和 (harmony)・國 (country).

The "China" in the names of both countries is clearly "Chōka" (中華 WG Chūnghuá, PY Zhōnghuá), not "Chūgoku" (中國 WG Chungkuo, PY Zhongguo). And "min" (民 WG&PY min) in ROC's name becomes "jinmin" (人民 WG jenmin, PY renmin), and both qualify what follows them (國) and (共和国), and the resulting expressions -- "minkoku" (民国) and "kyōwakoku" (共和国) -- are qualified by "Chōka" (中華).

The swapping of "jinmin" for "min" and "kyōkoku" for "koku" reflects the whole purpose of the Communist overthrow of the Nationalists on the continent (but not on Taiwan). Historically, "min" (民) has generally referred to ordinary people who are affiliated with or belong to a place or population that is somehow ruled or governed by less ordinary people. Qualifying "min" with "kuo" (國 PY guo), which means country or nation, the compound "kyomin" (國民 PY gyomin, J kokumin, KC kukmin) means a "national" of such a country or nation -- or the collectivity of such nationals as a "nation" -- who indidividually and collectively possess the country's or nation's "nationality" (國籍 WG kyochi, PY guoji, J kokuseki, KC kukjŏk). As a qualifer of "zu" (族 WG ) -- in contrast with "(racioethnic) nation (people)" (民族 PY minzu, WG mintsu, J minzoku, KC minjok) which signifies a racioethnic clan of people who generally share biological and other traits.

ROC was founded on the principle of recognizing several "(racioethnic) nations" (民族) within China, which under the new government were supposed to cooperate as a "republic" of such "peoples" collectively viewed as a single state, the affiliates of which shared a common civil "nationality" (國籍) as "nationals" (國民) of China -- i.e., "Chinese nationals", who belonged to "Nationalist China" as opposed to the earlier "Ching (Qing) Dynasty China" or its post-1949 rival PRC -- known as "Communist China" on account of its socialist governmental principles.

PRC recognized 56 racioethnic nations, including the majority "Han nationality" and 55 "minority nationalities" within its overarching state "nationality". But they were not "nationals" of China, for they were "renmin" (人民) rather than "guomin" (國民). By 1949, in China, Japan, Korea and Chosen, and Vietnma, "renmin" (人民 J jinmin, KC in-min) -- once just a more elegant way of referring to its nearly synonymous components "ren" (人) and "min" (民), referring generally to the people of a country -- had been drafted by socialialists and communists in East Asian countries to denote "the people" as a sovereign collectivity in and of itself -- rather than of a "nation" to which they somehow belonged as "nationals" -- and not of the bourgeoisie "state" that Engels foresaw as withering away in the wake of the protletarian socialist revolution. States that feared revolutionary takeovers rejected was was complete --

PRC ideologically

IGraphically reflects "middle-flower-people/nation-country" or "Middle flowering nation".

Note that the name for the People's Republic of China (PRC) is 中华人民共和国 or "Middle flowering people's together-in-harmony state".

中華 (中华) is a beautified name for the country known in English as "China" -- a later Anglicization of words used outside China to refer to the country during and before the time of Marco Polo (1254-1324), who brushed its borders during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368).

民 means a person in the sense of someone affiliated with a clan or polity. It is used in phrases like 民有民治民享之 -- an essential phrase in ROC's 1947, which reflects Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, and for the people" (see below). Some people have thought that 民 is an abbreviation of 民族 (racioethnic nation), as in "the Chinese race" (中華民族). However, here it means simply the "people" as in Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People" (三民主義), hence, "the people of China" (中華民) as a civil rather than racioethnic "nation" (see below).

人民 in PRC's name has the sense of "affiliates" (民) under themselves as "people" (人) -- i.e., a state's affiliated inhabitants as a civil demographic cohort -- hence the wide use of 人民 from around the middle of the 19th century, in both international treaties and some domestic laws, to mean "the people" as affiliates of one, or two or more, states.

"Chinese"

While the name of the country 中國人 is "middle-state people" graphically reflects "middle-flower-nation's state" or "middle-flower-nation's state".