TAIWAN INDEPENDENCE
OR UNIFICATION?
(Updated )

he most pressing Asian foreign policy issue currently faced by the U.S. is the Taiwan question. The email we receive in reaction to our articles relating to this issue suggests that it's an emotional one for many of our readers. Perhaps one reason for the emotion is the fact that the issue isn't amenable to an easy or simple solution.
     The first historical mention of Taiwan appears to have been when Portugese traders found it to be a resting place on their journey to Japan and named it Isla Formosa. Beijing's claim to Taiwan dates back to the 16th century when a Chinese general fought off the Portugese to claim the island for the emperor. In 1895 the expansion-minded Japanese annexed it after defeating China in a war on the Corean peninsula. China briefly reestablished sovereignty over Taiwan following Japan's defeat in August of 1945.
     At the time the official government of China, as recognized by most nations of the world, was under the control of the Kuomingtang headed by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. He was engaged in a desperate war against Mao Tse-tung's peasant army. Despite billions of dollars of aid by the U.S. based mainly on intensely partisan reporting by Henry Luce's Time/Life empire, the spectacularly corrupt Chiang lost that war and fled to Taiwan with 2.5 million followers.

     He established the present government of Taiwan on December 7, 1949 and proclaimed it the sole legitimate government of all China. Mao made the same claim. The claims competed until 1971 when it became clear to most of the world that Mao's was more persuasive. Taiwan was kicked out of the UN. The Beijing government took its place as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a seat given in recognition of China's role in fighting Japan in World War II.
     Mired in its own misguided war in Vietnam, and intensely fearful of anything red, the U.S. was one of the last nations to recognize the legitimacy of Mao's government. In 1972 Richard Nixon made his historic journey to Beijing. In 1976 the U.S. took the next step by recognizing the People's Republic as China's sole legitimate government. It began pursuing the "One China, One Taiwan" policy under which official diplomatic contacts were exclusively with Beijing but continued to sell billions of dollars a year of fighter jets, helicopters, tanks and missiles to Taiwan to help defend against a possible Chinese effort to refunify by force.
     In 1997 President Clinton declared a "strategic partnership" with Beijing over intense Republican objections. It was an astute recognition of the fact that China's 1.2 billion people must be accorded a central place in U.S. foreign policy. But the historic, moral and economic ties that bind the U.S. to Taiwan's 23 million people stand squarely in the way of cutting off arms sales and renouncing the pact under which the U.S. obliged itself to come to Taiwan's defense in the event of attack by China. That U.S. pledge and continuing arms sales continue to inflame Beijing to periodic bursts of violent anti-U.S. rhetoric.
     Taiwan has been a domocracy since 1989 when it legalized opposition parties. It held its first democratic presidential elections in 1990. Lee Teng-hui handily won to keep the presidency which he had originally gained in 1988. Lee won again in 1996. Since 1997 he began efforts to warm up relations with Beijing by agreeing to enter into negotiations under a "One-China" framework with an eye toward eventual reunification. Beijing's leaders continued their highly successful campaign of pressuring diplomatic partners into severing ties with Taiwan. China even raised hell when Lee made a semi-surreptitious trip to New York in 1997. Since then China has scared neighborning nations like the Philippines into not allowing Lee to enter. As of 1999 Taiwan's diplomatic allies number about 18 out of about 220 nations on earth. All are tiny, impoverished Central American, African and Pacific Island nations that appreciate Taiwan's generous aid packages. Pago Pago is considered a major ally.
     Feisty Lee Teng-hui launched his own guerilla offensive in July, 1999 by declaring over German radio that Taiwan was in fact a separate state and would negotiate with Beijing on an equal footing. That sent Beijing into a tizzy. It fired off bombastic threats to take Taiwan by force and to annhilate the U.S. Navy if it intervenes. On October 18 during his British visit Chinese President Jiang Zemin assumed a softer, more relaxed tone in telling a London newspaper that China would be peacefully reunited with Taiwan under a one-nation two-systems formula by the middle of the next century. One might have expected Lee to have been relieved by that statement. Instead, he brushed it aside as "a hoax". China should try instead to set a timetable for its democratization as that was the only way to ensure reunification, sneered Lee's Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi. Most polls show that a clear majority of Taiwanese prefer to maintain the status quo indefinitely rather than moving toward unification.
     Beijing's reunification mandate appears based on the idea that in winning the mainland, the Chinese people had rejected the "criminal" Kuomingtang and its right to rule any part of China. It also sees Taiwan as a galling symbol of the division wrought and preserved by western imperialists -- namely, the U.S. -- seeking to enjoy global hegemony at the expense of Chinese dignity.
     Meanwhile the U.S. remains on the hook to defend Taiwan and sell it arms though doing so keeps its relations with a quarter of humanity rocky and on edge. Under its current policy the U.S. is the asbestos firewall that keeps friction between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait from igniting into war.
     Should the U.S. continue alienating Beijing to help Taiwan protect its independence or improve relations with China by pressuring Taiwan to reunite? it's quite absurd that someone would claim Taiwan has a greater history of lieing and twisting history--have you seen the censorship in China?

Censorship in all forms of media will lead to the development of a skewed and rather off-the-wall sense of reality and history. If this is considered "better" than what the Taiwanese have done then obviously there will never be a resolution.

Both sides have fought, aggravated, and brain-washed their children into believing the other side is the root of all evil.

Which side is right? Neither. The world backs China, but why? Money. There is no greater drive than the abuse of cheap low-cost labor for manufacturing in China. Add to that the increase in consumer spending and the ever-growing titanic population and you have a economic hot-bed waiting to be exploited and bombarded by first world countries looking for a great place to make a cheap buck. Every company that I have consulted and spoken with loves to invest in China but is scared to hell about investing there. Why? The corruptness of China's government (from both personal business experience and consulting experience) is laughable and infuriating at the same time.

Every country starts with corrupt roots and that may take time to abolish. However, with a government privy to censor everything and scream-and-kick like a 3 yr old about everyone else that doesn't see the future magnificence of China, wielding both weapons and economic growth might be a great struggle for China. "Speak softly but carry a big stick," is not China's current policy. It is more to the tune of, "Carry a big stick and whack anyone who speaks louder than you." China must becareful of what it's doing before the hate-void left by the collapse of communist Russia is filled by anti-China sentiments. Fear indeed--China has the worst PR abilities I've ever seen.


As far as the previous poster's negative views on Taiwanese and Taiwanese-Americans, we are all entitled to our own opinions. Yes, your excursions into the roots of "Taiwanese people" ancestry is somewhat accurate and amusing. We all know that the Taiwanese majority that makeup Taiwan are originally from China. If that is a major basis for your views then you must trace back Chinese ancestry then. China, and the Chinese people, have been mixed in bloodlines with so many areas of Asia that there is no "true Chinese" to begin with. If you live in an area long enough, you then develop your own culture, belief, dialect, and other idiosyncracies of a young culture. Just as Americans are not English, and just as Cantonese in Hong Kong proclaimed to be Cantonese and not Chinese until the dawn of 1997.

Why is there such hatred between the two countries? It's the brainwashing that has ensued for generations by both sides. Both sides are understandably angry at each other and have billions of reasons to be. Why can't China just let Taiwan be? It has to do with pride. Taiwan should not be a major concern for China and its economic climb. The Taiwanese government is begging and clawing for Taiwan-based corporations to stay in Taiwan and not follow the trend to move to the cheap manufacturing opportunities in China. Once one block in the supply-chain moves, it makes no sense for the other blocks to stay in Taiwan. In short time, China will eclipse every aspect of Taiwan manufacturing production capacities. How do I know? I consult with manufacturing companies on a daily basis.

Why should we be afraid of China? There is nothing stopping China from nationalizing a factory, plant, etc. on moments notice. The current trend seems to be to lure foreign company investments, learn the technology, and then aid native-based companies to compete and destroy the foreign companies (the methods are many, and I've seen QUITE a bit of government corruption from the lowest level phone contracting companies to upper level government).

Let's not forget the wonderful move China's government decided to implement when separate housing standards seemed "no longer necessary." Property values of expensively purchased housing that can only be occupied and purchased by foriengers fell in value overnight when the government changed the living and land holding policies. Such drastic measures devestated plenty of investors and wisened many potential foreign investors.

What's there to fear? What's there to hate? A tiny nation of Taiwan can't do any harm to China but the people are bent on vengeance. Give up. There's more issues that China has to deal with than Taiwan.

PS-What's my view? Taiwan will die without China but I still believe that any democracy should be protected. Isn't that American policy? Defender of the free? Oh, I forgot, it's now "Defender of Corporate America." Imagine if the USA had backed Taiwan or even aided in re-establishing the KMT of Taiwan to control China (actually bringing a large US force and conquering China). Can you imagine a Taiwan the size of China? Perhaps America did know what it was doing.

PPS- Taiwanese or Chinese? Both sides love to belittle and look down upon the other. Don't think that China is above that; nor is Taiwan. Everyone needs to grow up. I hear both sides ALL the time condescendingly bashing on the other sides barbarianism and stupidity.

Grow up, everyone.
Asian American    Tuesday, September 24, 2002 at 01:22:52 (PDT)    [68.4.71.157]

NEWEST COMMENTS | EARLIER COMMENTS