China Vs Taiwan
Tensions between China and Taiwan are on the rise. The Chinese military is conducting military drills on the seas surrounding Taiwan On 9 April 2023. Missiles are being tested. Chinese fighter jets are intruding on Taiwan's airspace. Taiwanese government websites are under cyber attack. Taiwan's foreign minister responded to it with the statement that these are all a part of China's game plan. What game plan?
The game plan is to invade Taiwan. They are doing this because China doesn't consider Taiwan as an independent nation. China believes Taiwan to be a part of China. That's why the Chinese government issued statements to either peacefully reunite with China, or else they would invade Taiwan and make it a part of their country. Come, let's try to understand the tensions between the two countries and their history.
Strictly speaking, the issue between China and Taiwan is an old one. But this fresh crisis involves America as well. Specifically speaking, this episode began with an American politician Nancy Pelosi.
Nancy Pelosi is a senior American politician and has been the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the USA since 2019. She is pretty much the Speaker of the Lok Sabha in America. She was on a tour of some countries in Asia, and for weeks, people had been speculating, whether she would visit Taiwan on her tour. It is a major step for an American politician to officially visit Taiwan. Because that portrays that they believe Taiwan to be an independent nation. China does not like this at all. The Chinese government had warned Nancy multiple times, to prevent her from going to Taiwan. In fact, the Chinese dictator Xi Jinping has said this, Play with fire; you'll get burned.*
His exact words were "Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about it." He told America to honor the principle of One China. But despite this, Nancy Pelosi decided to go to Taiwan. Actually, till the moment she landed in Taiwan, officially, this was kept a secret. No one was aware of it. On 2nd August, late at night, the US military airplane landed in Taipei. As soon as China got to know about it, the Chinese government was furious. Nancy Pelosi going to Taiwan is very significant because, over the last 25 years, she has been the highest-ranking government official from America to visit Taiwan. She was welcomed with an open heart in Taiwan.
Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, was lit up with messages welcoming Nancy.
As we are seeing the world faces a choice between Democracy and Autocracy.
The Chinese Communist Party responded strongly to it saying that if Taiwan tried to get independent in any way, the dream of independence would be crushed by the powerful force of the Chinese people. These are just empty words, because in reality, nowadays, Taiwan functions as an entirely independent country. They have a separate government a Constitution, and a military, the only thing is that the other countries do not acknowledge Taiwan much. The Chinese government was so furious with it, that within hours of this event, they announced military drills. Look at this map of Taiwan. Taiwan is an island.
It is completely separated from mainland China. In the sea between Taiwan and China, A median Line is drawn at the midpoint, it is a symbolic line, no one has actually drawn a line there, but unofficially, this has been treated as the Line of Control for many years. During the military drills, China tested several missiles by intruding on this Median Line. Several of their Navy's vessels and aircraft reached quite close to the island of Taiwan. China does the same thing to India as well. It is constantly intruding on the India-China border.
In response, Taiwan sent its Navy's aircraft to the Median Line to drive out the Chinese military. Four days later, the Chinese dictator Xi Jinping said that he wanted a peaceful reunification of Taiwan with mainland China. This isn't the first time he said something like this, in 2019, he had given similar statements saying that reunification of Taiwan with China is inevitable.
That would happen someday. And that if it doesn't happen peacefully, as the last option, China may use military force as well. This begs the question,
Is Taiwan truly a part of China?
What right does China have to demand from Taiwan?
To know this, we have to know the history of the two countries. Thousands of years ago, the very first settlers on Taiwanese land were the Austronesian tribals. They are believed to have come from a part of southern China. After that, the Chinese records mention the island of Taiwan in 239 AD for the first time. An emperor of the time, sent his force to explore the area. It might sound like an insignificant fact, but actually, the Chinese government refers to this fact now, to claim that it is a reason why Taiwan is a part of China now.
To know this, we have to know the history of the two countries. Thousands of years ago, the very first settlers on Taiwanese land were the Austronesian tribals. They are believed to have come from a part of southern China. After that, the Chinese records mention the island of Taiwan in 239 AD for the first time. An emperor of the time, sent his force to explore the area. It might sound like an insignificant fact, but actually, the Chinese government refers to this fact now, to claim that it is a reason why Taiwan is a part of China now.
Moving on, from 1624 to 1661, Taiwan was a Dutch colony. After that, from 1683 to 1895 China's Qing dynasty administered it. During this period, many people migrated from mainland China to this island. Most of these people were -- Chinese. They were from the Fujian province in China. The descendants of these migrants are the largest demographic group in Taiwan today. The first Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1895, Japan won this war and the entire territory of Taiwan fell into Japanese administration.
In 1912, the Qing dynasty was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution in China. After this, the Republic of China was established in Mainland China. But then, Taiwan was a part of Japan, Only after World War II, after Japan's loss, they had to leave Taiwanese territory. As we know, the Allies won World War II, it included the USA, the UK, and even China. The Republic of China was then given control over the Taiwanese area. With the consent of the US and the UK.
Later in February 1947, anti-government protests began in Taiwan. Chinese government carried out a vicious massacre. On 28th February 1947, thousands of civilians were killed, you can compare it to the Jalianwala Bagh massacre. 
It is estimated that about 18,000 to 28,000 people were killed. In Taiwanese history, this incident is known as the 2-28 incident. It is an important part of their history.
Over the next 2 years, there was a civil war in Mainland China. The leader at the time, Chiang Kai-Shek, was defeated by Mao Zedong's Communist Army. Chiang Kai-shek party KMT, Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-Shek, and his supporters, about 1.5 million people, fled mainland China and went to Taiwan.
This was in 1949. On the Taiwanese island, the KMT government and their supporters established a new government that was like a Government in Exile. For the next 25 years, they formed a separate government in Taiwan, and then he was succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-Kuo. The thing was that the KMT government was used to ruling all over China before the revolution, after which communist people like Mao Zedong came and overthrew them in Mainland China. and they were restricted to Taiwan. But because they were used to rule over the entire area, for a long time, this Government in Exile, kept claiming that the whole of China was theirs. And that one day they would reclaim all of China.
You will have to understand the context of the 1960s and the 1970s. That was the era of the Cold War. With the USA and the Soviet Union on either side, Capitalist America, and the Communist Soviet Union. And who had won in Mainland China? Mao Zedong's communist government. So obviously, America was against Mao Zedong's Communist government.
That's why, in the United Nations the government of Taiwan Chiang's ROC, was considered to be the 'real' China, and China's seat at the United Nations Security Council, was given to the Taiwanese government. And most Western countries at the time, considered Taiwan to be the real Chinese government. But by the 1970s, some countries started arguing that the Taiwanese government controls only a small island and they cannot be said to represent the whole of China the hundreds of millions of people living in Mainland China cannot be controlled by a government on a small island. It was unrealistic.
Then in 1971, the United Nations switched its decision. They reversed their opinion, they said that the Chinese government in Beijing, Mao Zedong's Communist government was the real Chinese government and the ROC government in Taiwan fell out of their grace.
Mao Zedong passed away in 1976, and the next Chinese ruler, Deng Xiaoping, was a bit more open-hearted. In 1978, he brought about economic reforms in his country, and China began opening up its economy to the rest of the world. America believed that communism would be slowly eradicated from China so in 1979, they officially, established diplomatic ties with the Chinese government. The thing is that the government in mainland China, claims all of China. They claim Taiwan to be a part of China, and should be under their control. And so the other countries eventually stopped recognizing Taiwan. They stopped seeing it as a separate country and considered it a part of China. Eventually, fewer and fewer countries recognized Taiwan as an independent country. Today, only 15 countries now consider Taiwan to be an independent country.
In the period between 1949 and 1987, is known as the White Terror.
That's why, in the United Nations the government of Taiwan Chiang's ROC, was considered to be the 'real' China, and China's seat at the United Nations Security Council, was given to the Taiwanese government. And most Western countries at the time, considered Taiwan to be the real Chinese government. But by the 1970s, some countries started arguing that the Taiwanese government controls only a small island and they cannot be said to represent the whole of China the hundreds of millions of people living in Mainland China cannot be controlled by a government on a small island. It was unrealistic.
Then in 1971, the United Nations switched its decision. They reversed their opinion, they said that the Chinese government in Beijing, Mao Zedong's Communist government was the real Chinese government and the ROC government in Taiwan fell out of their grace.
Mao Zedong passed away in 1976, and the next Chinese ruler, Deng Xiaoping, was a bit more open-hearted. In 1978, he brought about economic reforms in his country, and China began opening up its economy to the rest of the world. America believed that communism would be slowly eradicated from China so in 1979, they officially, established diplomatic ties with the Chinese government. The thing is that the government in mainland China, claims all of China. They claim Taiwan to be a part of China, and should be under their control. And so the other countries eventually stopped recognizing Taiwan. They stopped seeing it as a separate country and considered it a part of China. Eventually, fewer and fewer countries recognized Taiwan as an independent country. Today, only 15 countries now consider Taiwan to be an independent country.
In the period between 1949 and 1987, is known as the White Terror.
More than 100,000 people were jailed for political reasons. More than 1,000 people were killed. Chinese dictator Mao Zedong on the one side, killed people simply for being anti-communist, even on the merest doubt of a person being anti-communist, the person would be killed. On the other hand, Taiwan's dictator Chiang Kai-Shek, would crush any criticism and criticism and then label a communist sympathizer. Both were dictators.
One of them would kill people for being anti-communist, and the other would kill people for being a communist. But there was something in Taiwan that couldn't reach Mainland China. The growth of democracy. After dictator Chiang Ching-Kuo passed away, in 1988, Taiwan's new President was Lee Teng-Hui. He brought about Constitutional Changes. He is known as the Father of Democracy in Taiwan.
He was done with the dictatorships and gave power to the citizens. Eventually, in 2000, the elections were conducted and the first non-KMT President of the country was Chen Shui-Bian. At the same time, there were efforts to bring democracy to China as well, in 1989, China was so close to adopting democracy. There were thousands of students protesting on the roads. Demanding freedom. But under the communist government, the Chinese military had open-fired.
"The noise of gunfire rose from all over the center of Peking. It was unremitting."
Thousands were arrested in an effort to suppress the revolution. And in the midst of it, the famous photo, still revered today, was taken. There's a place Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, where the protests were taking place. (1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre)
Chinese government deployed tanks to stop the protests. When one braveheart stood alone before the tanks to stop them.
Even now, we don't know who this person was. Who was brave enough to face a line of tanks alone? Despite knowing that the Chinese government had opened fire on students. Shot at the protesting students. We don't know the consequences this man had to face. But this has become such an iconic photo that it is known as a Symbol of Revolution now. An interesting fact here, if you try to search for this incident or this photo on any Chinese social media website, you will not find anything.
You can try, this photo's name is Tank Man.
Because the communist government in China keeps all negative incidents a secret. No one is allowed to even mention this incident in China. Don't even think of looking at this photo. Thankfully, there's democracy in other parts of the world, due to which we can still know about these incidents. If there's democracy in China someday, the Chinese people could then be told about this. In 2000, when there was democracy in Taiwan, and the communist government was ruling in China, China proposed the One Country, Two Systems option to China. Wherein Taiwan would agree to be a part of China, but they can continue working independently. That they would be given significant autonomy. Taiwan rejected this offer.
In 2000, Chen Shui-Bian openly said that his party wanted complete independence from China.
That they did not want to be associated with them in any form. The KMT party still wanted to reunify with China, but in 2016, DPP, the Democratic Progressive Party won the elections, and the new President of Taiwan was Sai Ing-Wen. She is believed to be a competent and progressive president. This is why she was reelected for the second term in 2020. But now you must be wondering after you've heard the entire story about its history, it is understandable that China wanted to annex Taiwan, and Taiwan wanted to annex China, but what about the citizens? What do the Taiwanese people think? Because really, their opinion matters the most.
According to the latest surveys, 64% of the Taiwanese people identify as Taiwanese. 30.4% of people identify as Chinese and Taiwanese, and only 2.4% of people, identify as Chinese. Fewer than 10% of people in Taiwan want the unification of Taiwan with China. In my opinion, this issue is illogical. The history of both countries separated after the 1950s.
With the Communist Revolution in one place, and the Democratic reforms in the other. The ideologies of both countries are so distinct from one another, with a prevalent dictatorship in one place till now and people have no freedom, and on the other hand, there's a full democracy. The current democratic rank of Taiwan is quite good.
They rank 32nd in the world. And 3rd in Asia. In countries like India where the media is heavily influenced, and the other pillars of democracy aren't working as well, so much so that India is considered a Flawed Democracy. Taiwan is now considered a full democracy.
Getting to America, as I told you, in the 1970s, America's stance had taken a U-turn. The USA had begun developing relations with communist China. But realistically seeing, America had maintained a strategic distance from both countries. In 1979, legislation was passed in the USA, that if China tried to invade Taiwan, American forces would be deployed to help Taiwan. Over the last few years, America's stance has been shifting more in favor of Taiwan and against China.
American President Joe Biden had recently said, that America believes in the One China policy. It believes that there is only one Chinese government but despite that, if they try to forcefully invade and annex Taiwan, if the Chinese government tries to use the military to invade Taiwan, it wouldn't be right. When Biden said this, the Chinese foreign ministry replied that Biden should stay away from their internal matter. That it is China's internal matter. For decades, Japan had maintained a distance from this China-Taiwan issue. Japan considers it to be a politically sensitive matter, and so it doesn't opine on it publicly.
But in June last year, Japan's State Minister for Defence said that they have to protect Taiwan because Taiwan is a democratic country. If China attacks Taiwan, Japan would join forces with America, to defend Taiwan. Here it is interesting to mention that America maintains unofficial relations with Taiwan. America sells weapons to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act so that Taiwan can defend itself but at the same time, America has also said that it does not support Taiwan's independence. This was reiterated one week ago, by the US National Security Coordinator. America's stance might sound confusing, but it is quite simple. America agrees that there is One China.
With the Communist Revolution in one place, and the Democratic reforms in the other. The ideologies of both countries are so distinct from one another, with a prevalent dictatorship in one place till now and people have no freedom, and on the other hand, there's a full democracy. The current democratic rank of Taiwan is quite good.
They rank 32nd in the world. And 3rd in Asia. In countries like India where the media is heavily influenced, and the other pillars of democracy aren't working as well, so much so that India is considered a Flawed Democracy. Taiwan is now considered a full democracy.
Getting to America, as I told you, in the 1970s, America's stance had taken a U-turn. The USA had begun developing relations with communist China. But realistically seeing, America had maintained a strategic distance from both countries. In 1979, legislation was passed in the USA, that if China tried to invade Taiwan, American forces would be deployed to help Taiwan. Over the last few years, America's stance has been shifting more in favor of Taiwan and against China.
American President Joe Biden had recently said, that America believes in the One China policy. It believes that there is only one Chinese government but despite that, if they try to forcefully invade and annex Taiwan, if the Chinese government tries to use the military to invade Taiwan, it wouldn't be right. When Biden said this, the Chinese foreign ministry replied that Biden should stay away from their internal matter. That it is China's internal matter. For decades, Japan had maintained a distance from this China-Taiwan issue. Japan considers it to be a politically sensitive matter, and so it doesn't opine on it publicly.
But in June last year, Japan's State Minister for Defence said that they have to protect Taiwan because Taiwan is a democratic country. If China attacks Taiwan, Japan would join forces with America, to defend Taiwan. Here it is interesting to mention that America maintains unofficial relations with Taiwan. America sells weapons to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act so that Taiwan can defend itself but at the same time, America has also said that it does not support Taiwan's independence. This was reiterated one week ago, by the US National Security Coordinator. America's stance might sound confusing, but it is quite simple. America agrees that there is One China.
In 2010, she had gone to Oslo, to award a Nobel Peace Prize to a revolutionary and critic of the Chinese government. Liu Xiaobo. 9 years later, in a rally in Washington DC, she unveiled the statue of the Tank Man to the world. The same unidentified pro-democracy protestor, who is now a symbol of revolution.
Not only this, the atrocities against the Buddhists in Tibet, against the Muslims in Uyghurs, and against the people in Hong Kong. She has remained vocal about these as well. In 2019, the USA passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019. In 2020, they sent the Uyghur Human Rights Bill to the White House and got it signed. Today, one thing is certain, the US and China relations are at an all-time low.
But one question still remains. Why is the Chinese government so obsessed with Taiwan? It is just a small island. Why do they need to add fuel to the controversy? To threaten them with war? The answer to it is hidden in one person. Xi Jinping.
But one question still remains. Why is the Chinese government so obsessed with Taiwan? It is just a small island. Why do they need to add fuel to the controversy? To threaten them with war? The answer to it is hidden in one person. Xi Jinping.
He has manipulated the citizens of China at his will. Despite it all, there was an economic crisis in China. With the Evergrande Crisis, then the coal crisis, and a devastating lockdown, there has been a series of problems in China. People aren't able to withdraw money from their banks. Unemployment is rising, And there are a lot of problems with the economy of the country.
The 20th National Congress is scheduled to be held in some months. Here, Xi Jinping has to fight to get his tenure extended. To remain in power. In such a case, as an image-building move, what is he using?
The answer to this is in Rahat Indori's couplet. "Are there tensions on the border? Ah, elections must be around the corner," The same muscle-flexing was seen in another world leader. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. And the same thing can be seen in Xi Jinping. Similar to the crisis in Ukraine, is a war between Putin and Ukraine, the ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan, are the tensions between Xi Jinping and Taiwan.
The war in Russia and Ukraine has been managed by other countries in some way or another, there wasn't a devastating effect on the imports, but if the same thing happens between China and Taiwan, the dire consequences would be felt all over the world, the number of products exported by China and Taiwan is significantly more. Several industries all around the world rely on these two countries.
India borders China. And if the US and Japan intervene with their military, it's possible that Russia will start backing China. And then Europe would have to back Japan and the US. In such a case, the scale of the war can be unprecedented, in case China takes military action against Taiwan. I assume know how WWI had begun. Simply because of some alliances and militarization. It is hoped that this time, the politicians in power would be more sensible. And would not push the world into another war.
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