Are More Chinese People Looking to Taiwan for an Alternative?

So tonight, I want to ask a bold question. Could the Republic of China ever return to mainland China? And more importantly, would ordinary Chinese welcome it? Well, I can give you the answers. There are signs, small, scattered, and sometimes difficult to verify, suggesting that a growing number of people inside mainland or the mainland are hoping for the return of the ROC and what it represents. So let me first share two pictures with you. So in recent days, pictures have emerged from both Tianjin and Shandong showing people openly wearing shirts covered with the flag of the Republic of China, the familiar symbol of blue sky, white sun, and red field, most commonly associated with Taiwan. It's red, blue, and white. That's what I'm wearing tonight. This is the only red, blue, and white shirt that I have. In one image taken at what appears to be a recreational area in Tianjin, an elderly man can be seen sitting calmly on a small stool while wearing one of those shirts. Several people appear to have gathered around him. And the other picture came from Zibo in Shandong. A younger man was photographed riding a bicycle through the street while holding an umbrella with one hand. He was wearing another full print Republic of China flag shirt, although the design was a little different from the one we saw in Tianjin. Now, just think about what this means. Just inside mainland China, the Republic of China flag is not treated as an ordinary historical symbol. It represents the government that the CCP defeated in 1949. It's associated with Taiwan. And in today's China, wearing it openly in public equates to making a political statement. That's why these pictures immediately caused a sensation online. Instead of condemning the man, many Chinese began asking where they could buy the shirts. And another person joked. He said, if Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek is the ROC leader who was defeated by Mao and fled to Taiwan. So he said, Chiang Kai-shek has suddenly discovered that he still has troops available in Shandong. It was meant as a joke, of course, but behind that joke is a political reality that Beijing may find deeply uncomfortable. Shandong, okay, is often described as one of the strongest bases of China's so-called little pinks, young aggressive nationalists who loudly defend the CCP online. So when a man in Shandong rides through the street wearing the ROC flag shirt, the symbolism becomes even more striking. And someone wrote, what we can see is the shirt he's wearing, but what we cannot see is the silent cry of the people. And I think that may be the most important point. Now, they're not the only ones. For some people inside China, the ROC flag represents something much deeper. One of them is an elderly man. His name is Han Liang. He lives in Chongqing, and he wears an ROC flag shirt wherever he goes. Now, his father once served as an officer in the nationalist military. And for more than a decade, this man, Han Liang, has repeatedly taken to the streets to speak about suppressed history and promote democratic ideals. For doing so, he has been arrested dozens of times and repeatedly thrown into detention. But he wears the shirt every time he goes out. And the regime's enforcers knocked out his teeth, damaged his hearing, and permanently injured his left hand. Yet he has never backed down. Whether he's going to a courthouse, a prosecutor's office, or any other government building, he appears in clothing covered with the ROC's logo or the flag. And according to Mr. Han, local public security authorities once said that they were spending nearly 200,000 yuan, which is about 30,000 US dollars a year, simply to monitor, arrest, and deal with him. And then on February this year, a video posted on X appeared to show the ROC flag suddenly appearing during a drone show, a drone performance over Shanghai's Bond. That was February the 13th. This is part of the Lunar New Year celebration. The video reportedly received more than 21,000 likes and thousands and thousands of comments. And they were all positive. So some people later claimed that the video had been created with AI. But whether the video was authentic or artificially generated, the enthusiastic reaction that it received still tell us something. And then on May 10th, another photograph circulated online showing what were described as students inside China displaying both the Kuomintang flag and the ROC flag inside a classroom. It's the image on the right. And at the top of that image, there's a tiny little picture showing the two flags inside a classroom. And the image was reportedly shared in a private WeChat conversation between, or in a chat group. And people were discussing their admiration for Taiwan. So taken together, these incidents may reflect something much larger. There are people inside mainland China who admire Taiwan and want the ROC to return. Others may simply be searching for a symbol that rejects the CCP's monopoly over Chinese identity. And for decades, the CCP has tried to convince the Chinese people that loving China must mean loving the CCP. But Taiwan presents a dangerous alternative. It shows that a Chinese society can have elections. It can have competing political parties. It can criticize its leaders. It can change governments without revolution or bloodshed. And that may be why a ROC shirt can carry such extraordinary political power. It also represents a challenge to the regime's claim that it is the only legitimate government capable of representing China. But that flag or that T-shirt may represent something entirely different. It may represent a different path China might have taken or a different political future. In the end, the ROC offers something the CCP fears deeply. That is, prove that China and the CCP are not the same thing because the CCP wants people to believe that without the party, there can be no China. But the continued existence of the Republic of China in Taiwan exposes the weakness of that argument. A separate Chinese political system can exist outside the Communist Party. The minute people becomes aware of ROC's existence or they're reminded of ROC's existence. So here's the million dollar question. Can the Republic of China return to China, return to the mainland? I think the answer depends on how we define the word return. I think it can return whenever someone inside China looks at Taiwan and sees not an enemy but an alternative or it has already returned whenever someone inside China sees Taiwan as an alternative but not an enemy. It has already returned whenever a person puts on a ROC flag shirt and rides a bicycle through the streets. And here are some more pictures I found of people wearing the ROC shirt in China, one man wore it in public on the left. And the picture on the right is from a man who used to sell this type of shirts in China. He said that they sell pretty well. There's a demand for them, but he got into trouble with the authorities from his business. So he escaped to New Zealand, but he showed his shirt and also showed his tattoo, the tattoo on his arm, which is a ROC flag. So don't underestimate the impact of private citizens wearing the ROC shirt in public. And don't underestimate the National Restoration Party's influence in China. They might not be known to the world right now, but they may already have a following in China. They may be already making a huge impact in China.