My dinner with a glamorous Taiwanese MP

I arrive here shortly after Taiwan National Day, which is 10 October. The day might seem strangely chosen, because the date commemorates the Wuhan Uprising in 1911, the spark for the revolution which overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty and created the Republic of China. At that time, the island of Taiwan did not benefit. It had been ruled since 1895 by Japan and continued thus until Japan’s surrender in 1945. The reason 10 October is the National Day is because the ‘nation’ referred to is the whole of China, not Taiwan. When Chiang Kai-Shek, the Kuo Min Tang (KMT) generalissimo, was defeated by the communist revolution in 1949, he fled to Taiwan. He ruled Taiwan, but laid claim to the entire Republic of China (ROC) – the mainland plus Taiwan – and repudiated Chairman Mao’s People’s Republic of China (PRC). In formal terms, and despite the loss of diplomatic status after the United States switched horses and recognised communist China in 1979, Taiwan is still the ROC, still laying claim to the mainland.