By Khedroob Thondup

When the Republic of China (ROC) government fled to Taiwan in 1949, it carried with it the constitutional claim to rule all of China—including Tibet and Mongolia. For decades, this claim was not only symbolic but institutionalised through agencies like the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, which managed policies toward regions the ROC no longer controlled. Yet in 2017, Taipei dissolved that commission, a move that signalled the practical abandonment of its historic claims.

From Constitutional Fiction to Political RealityThe ROC Constitution still contains Article 4, which defines the national territory as encompassing “the existing territory of the Republic of China.” In practice, this has long been interpreted to mean the whole of China, including Tibet. Dissolving the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission was a tacit admission...