Chu Yun-han says that, before 1949, Taiwan was always a subsystem of a larger system--under the Cheng family with its loyalties to restoring the Ming dynasty, as a province of China under the Qing dynasty, as a Japanese colony, and as a "restored" part of the ROC after WWⅡ. There had never been any thought or expectation that Taiwan would be an independent country.
朱雲漢也指出，民國三十八年前，從明鄭、清朝、日據、再回歸中國，台灣一直是某種大體系下的次體系，從未有過成為獨立國家的想像和期望。