Different Republics: Transformation of Authority, Territory and Rights in China.

On the eve of the ROC's national celebration day, a news report about PRC's official occupied the headline in Taiwan. The news says Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will meet top China negotiator Chen Yunlin to discuss direct passenger and cargo flights in late October. According to Taiwan's topic negotiator on China policy, this meeting will be the largest breakthrough in the cross-Strait relations since 1949. The story behind this news are a Republic which began as a one-pary dominated authoritarin government in 1911 to a fledgling democracy which tries to reshape its relations with Mainland China in order to bring more business opportunities for its citizens through cross-Strait trade than the former administration did. This paper intends to trace this development of citizen's rights in the formation of the Republic, and its political and economic reforms in the later periods. The concepts of authority, territory and rights will be used as analytical tools to dissect different shape and form of political governance, subjectivities, and normative discourse in configuring the people's rights to the Republic and its implications on the citizens' rights claims to the PRC. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]