**Campaign companion paper — FCM-PR-2026-10-02-01**
October 10 is Double Tenth (雙十節), the National Day of the Republic of China. It marks the Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911, the revolt that broke the Qing dynasty and ended more than two thousand years of imperial rule in China. The Republic of China was formally proclaimed on January 1, 1912, with Sun Yat-sen as its first provisional president. October 10 was later fixed as the National Day.
Sun Yat-sen founded the republic on the Three Principles of the People (三民主義): nationalism, democracy, and the people’s livelihood. The idea was plain — China would be a republic belonging to its people, not a dynasty belonging to one family. The 1947 Constitution put it in law. Article 1: “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.” Article 2: sovereignty resides in the whole body of citizens.
The republic’s first decades on the mainland were consumed by warlords, the war against Japan, and civil war. In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war, proclaimed the People’s Republic of China on October 1, and the Republic of China government relocated to Taiwan. For years afterward, both governments claimed to be the sole legitimate government of China; the Republic of China held China’s seat at the United Nations until 1971.
On Taiwan, the Republic of China spent its first four decades as an authoritarian one-party state. Martial law was imposed in 1949 and stayed in force for 38 years. That history matters, and the campaign does not hide it — a republic that once jailed its critics is not a fairy tale. What matters is what happened next.
In 1987 martial law was lifted and Taiwan began a genuine democratic transition: the first direct legislative election in 1992, the first direct presidential election in 1996. Since then Taiwan has held repeated free elections and transferred presidential power between parties peacefully — in 2000, 2008, and 2016. Competing parties, a free press, an independent judiciary, and the ballot box as the instrument that can retire a ruling party: the Article 1 promise is now practiced.
That is what Double Tenth celebrates. Not an empire, not a party, not a leader — a republic the people can correct. In the Republic of China calendar, 2026 is year 115 (民國一百一十五年). This year the day falls on a Saturday, October 10.
## Sources
– National Day of the Republic of China — history of Double Tenth and the 1911 uprising: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_the_Republic_of_China
– Constitution of the Republic of China, full English text (Article 1 quoted above): https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=A0000001
– Taiwan’s democratic transition — martial law lifted 1987, first direct presidential election 1996, peaceful transfers of power: https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/volume-170/issue-6/senate-section/article/S95-3
– How October 10 is remembered differently in Taipei and Beijing: https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/divergent-legacies-on-double-ten-day-10-october-in-china-and-taiwan/
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*Publication author: Free China Movement. Companion to press release FCM-PR-2026-10-02-01.*