The Official Name of The Republic of China written by Dr. Sun Yat-sen

The Republic of China (中華民國) was founded on 1 January 1912. Two thousand years of imperial rule was finally eradicated, giving birth to the first republic in Asia. Since the founding of the Republic of China, there has not been a day without great turmoil nor peril. However the Free China that the Republic of China represents continually summons courageous men and women who are determined to save China. In a period of over one hundred and ten years, the Republic of China has been the champion and defender of the spirit of Chinese civilization, the custodian of Chinese cultural orthodoxy and heritage, the practitioner of democratic political system for the Chinese people.

The national name of the Republic of China, is a profile of the Principle of Democracy propagated by Dr. Sun Yat-sen (國父孫中山先生 1866-1925), Father of the Republic of China. In 1905, when the revolutionary organization T’ung-meng Society (同盟會) was holding preparatory meetings in Tokyo, Dr. Sun pronounced in Min-pao Newspaper (民報) The Three Principles of the People (三民主義): Nationalism (民族主義), Democracy (民權主義) and Livelihood (民生主義); and The Five-Power Constitution (五權憲法) as principles of the new nation. On 30 July 1905 during the inaugural meeting of T’ung-meng Society, Dr. Sun first put forward the name of the Republic of China.

Dr. Sun wrote in the article Chinese Must Save the Country by Means of Moral Integrity: 

“Gentlemen, you are naturally aware that the Republic of China is different to the Empire of China. An Empire is under the rule of one person the emperor; a Republic is under the rule of four million.”

Four million is a reference to the total population of China at that time.

Dr. Sun further wrote in The Meaning of the Republic of China:

“Citizens will have the right to vote and elect government officials, citizens will have the right to remove government officials, citizens will have the right to introduce and adopt legislations, citizens will have the right to revise and abolish legislations. These are the four great civil rights. The country can be called a genuine Republic only when she has attained these four great civil rights.”

On 1 January in the 36th year of the Republic (1947), the National Government promulgated the Constitution of the Republic of China. Article 1 of the General Provisions in Chapter 1 reads:

“The Republic of China, founded on The Three Principles of the People, shall be a democratic republic of the people, to be governed by the people and for the people.”

The Republic of China is the legal name of China, the official name of China.

The Republic of China is the rightful name of Free China, the rightful name of Democratic China, the rightful name of Cultural China, the rightful name of Confucian China that embodies the four Confucian Anchors of Propriety (禮), Righteousness (義), Honesty (廉) and Shamefulness (恥). The Republic of China is the Timeless China in the heart of every Chinese, irrelevant of residentship. The Republic of China is the rightful name of Future China, to be reborn, when mainland China exterminates the one party state.