{"id":11953,"date":"2024-02-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/?p=11953"},"modified":"2024-02-01T08:42:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T07:42:13","slug":"taiwan-a-country-like-no-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/taiwan-a-country-like-no-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan: A\u00a0Country Like No Other"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wojciech Harpula:<\/strong> What is Taiwan\u2019s official status? Is there any other country in the world with a\u00a0similar legal and international standing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Jakub Polit: <\/strong>Taiwan\u2019s status is impossible to define with precision. Comparing it to the pariah states such as Western Sahara, South Ossetia, or Abkhazia is highly confusing. Those are relatively new entities and hardly any country, if any, recognizes them. Taiwan\u2019s official name is the Republic of China, and it emerged in 1911 following the Xinhai Revolution which overthrew the Chinese empire. Not only was it recognized by all the other states in the world, but it also joined the United Nations as a\u00a0nominal superpower with the rights of a\u00a0permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1949, however, the Republic\u2019s government lost to Mao Zedong\u2019s communist rebellion in a\u00a0civil war and retreated to Taiwan. Consequently, its rule was restricted to Taiwan itself and a\u00a0few small islands in the Fujian Province close to the mainland. The USSR and its allies acknowledged the People\u2019s Republic of China, which controlled the whole big remainder of the Chinese territory, as the rightful entity representing China. In 1971, the U.N. also ceased to recognize the Republic of China, replacing it with the PRC. Therefore, Taiwan\u2019s case is special because it features a\u00a0withdrawal of international recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current status of the Republic of China is unique for one more reason. The country is officially recognized by 13 states, with the Holy See and, to a\u00a0lesser extent, Paraguay as the only important international players in this group. Nevertheless, it\u2019s doing great as a\u00a0state. It hasn\u2019t collapsed like Somalia. It\u2019s not a\u00a0makeshift country like South Ossetia or Abkhazia, both of which are simply parts of Georgia annexed by Russia. If moved to Europe, Taiwan would be a\u00a0middle-sized country\u2014a little bigger than the Netherlands, or a\u00a0bit smaller than Switzerland\u2014with a\u00a0population of 23 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has an efficient, state-of-the-art economy, and its social development indicators are among the highest in the world. In fact, Taiwan should be a\u00a0member of G20, a\u00a0group of the world\u2019s strongest economies! But it hasn\u2019t been admitted, and that\u2019s precisely because of its official status which indicates what Taiwan is and, perhaps more importantly, what it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Phot.: Pexels \/ Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did that happen? Why did 1971 see the PRC replace the Republic of China in the international arena?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And why did 1945 see an entity later called the People\u2019s Republic of Poland replace the Republic of Poland in the international arena? It was caused by the superpowers and their global game. The USSR had long been calling for recognizing the PRC as the rightful entity representing China, and one day it became beneficial to the United States too. Embroiled in the Vietnam War, the United States began to seek some agreement with communist China at the beginning of the 1970s. In 1971, the U.S. lifted its embargo on trading with the PRC; shortly thereafter, the government in Beijing invited the American ping-pong team to China, a move which became known as ping-pong diplomacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China was also visited by Henry Kissinger, who served as the national security advisor under President Richard Nixon and laid the ground for Nixon\u2019s visit to the PRC. A\u00a0little later, the U.S. gave its consent to the admission of communist China to the U.N. When the relevant resolution was passed, the Republic of China\u2019s representative left the room, stating that Taiwan and other like-minded governments would still make an effort to defend the U.N.\u2019s ideals which had just been betrayed by the General Assembly. That case was so special because a\u00a0country expelled from the U.N. continued to exist: it still had its territory, government, and army, and was doing quite well internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did the onset of communist rule in mainland China produce one Chinese state instead of two?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because both the PRC and the Republic of China consider themselves as the only rightful representatives of the Chinese state. This is one of the very few mutual beliefs still held by the governments in Beijing and Taipei. As long as up to the beginning of the 1990s, the mainland\u2019s communists and Taiwan\u2019s Kuomintang [KMT: the Nationalist Party of China, established in 1912, which ruled the Republic of China in the years 1928\u20132000 and 2008\u20132016\u2014editor\u2019s note] consistently maintained that there was only one China and that Taiwan formed its part. It was as if the Republic of Poland\u2019s government in exile, headed by President W\u0142adys\u0142aw Raczkiewicz and Prime Minister Tomasz Arciszewski, had managed to remain on the Hel Peninsula in 1945 and declared that they were still Poland\u2019s rightful government despite the communist party already ruling the country from its capital city of Warsaw under President Boles\u0142aw Bierut and Prime Minister J\u00f3zef Cyrankiewicz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since both Beijing and Taipei claimed that there was only one Chinese state in the world, it was impossible for them to recognize each other. Consequently, any country which acknowledged either of them had to face a formal severance of diplomatic relations by the other. Compare this to the situation developed by the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, or by North Korea and South Korea. The German states recognized each other and they both joined the U.N. The two Koreas haven\u2019t normalized their relations yet, but both of them enjoy international recognition. Unlike those countries, the Republic of China is the weaker party to the conflict and as such is virtually deprived of international support. This prevents Taiwan from joining any international organizations, so whenever it wishes to do so, it must resort to tricks. For instance, it\u2019s a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has admitted it as Chinese Taipei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has Taiwan ever been an independent country?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, it hasn\u2019t, but it\u2019s unique in its own way. The end of the 19th century saw events which made Taiwan follow a\u00a0different path than the mainland state. In 1895, when Japan won the war with China, Taiwan fell under Tokyo\u2019s rule. The Japanese modernized the island: they facilitated efficient agriculture by building an irrigation system, invested in new industrial infrastructure, and revamped the ports. Although the local people were treated as second-class citizens and couldn\u2019t hold offices, they sometimes looked favorably on the changes being made. After Japan\u2019s capitulation in 1945, Taiwan was returned to China, and the mainland army arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost half a\u00a0million Japanese were deported, while the Taiwanese were accused of collaboration. Some lost property or had to watch their farms being destroyed. The reason was the different past of the islanders and the mainland newcomers. The Taiwanese apartments were decorated with photos of family members in Japanese uniforms because of conscription. Moreover, Japanese had been Taiwan\u2019s elite language for a\u00a0very long period and Taipei was even called Taihoku for a\u00a0time. Since the Chinese from the mainland still remembered the atrocious crimes of their Japanese invaders, they treated the islanders with suspicion, to say the least. In fact, both sides glowered at each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Phot.: Allan So\/Pexels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Taiwanese still vividly remember the events known as the February 28 Incident.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s true, because a\u00a0trivial incident ended in a\u00a0massacre. It was largely the fault of the island\u2019s provincial governor, General Chen Yi, who behaved in an exceptionally brutal way. On February 27, 1947, the police were checking a\u00a0Taiwanese woman accused of smuggling cigarettes, and they ultimately struck her. An outraged crowd gathered on site and the police shot dead a\u00a0Taiwanese man during the resulting scramble. The next day, the protesters burst into the Taipei branch of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau and then rushed toward the provincial authorities\u2019 office. The soldiers gathered on the roof fired upon the crowd, killing or severely injuring a\u00a0few dozen people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day triggered a\u00a0general strike on the island: shops, schools, and factories closed, and riots broke out in Taipei. The mainland government reacted by sending an army to pacify Taiwan. The action lasted one month and claimed thousands of lives, including many members of the local elites. Although Governor Chen was later recalled, prosecuted, and executed, the local people still vividly remembered what mainland China had done to them when nearly two million Chinese from the continent arrived in Taiwan in 1949. That huge group consisted of soldiers from the broken-up army of the Republic\u2019s President Chiang Kai-shek, clerks from various administration levels, and everyone else unwilling to live on in communist China\u2014together with their families of course. The refugees made up almost 20% of the island\u2019s population but differed from the locals in their dialect and customs. Naturally, the situation caused growing friction in the society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, nobody eventually carried out the idea which was circulating among a\u00a0group of local politicians highly disapproving of Chiang Kai-shek. In 1949, Taiwanese society was afraid that communist China, which had already seized control of all the mainland provinces and the large Hainan Island, would soon invade Taiwan too. The country would thus become a\u00a0battleground for the last clash between the communists and the Kuomintang, which would certainly lead to its devastation. Thus, a\u00a0group of Taiwanese activists, who had left the island together with the Japanese, hit upon an idea of declaring independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They thought that putting up a\u00a0flag of the Republic of Taiwan and announcing neutrality in the seemingly inevitable conflict might convince both sides to leave Taiwan alone and incline the U.N. to recognize the new country. Those were anti-communist politicians who didn\u2019t accept the Kuomintang\u2019s authoritarian, non-democratic rule either. They counted on the presidential administration of Harry Truman, who personally couldn\u2019t stand Chiang Kai-shek and was convinced that \u201cthe island of the Chiangs\u201d (meaning Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo) would fall sooner or later. However, nothing of the sort happened because the Korean War broke out in 1950 and Taiwan got the United States\u2019 support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would Taiwan<\/strong> have ultimately been annexed by the PRC had it not been for the Korean War and the USA\u2019s strategic involvement in that part of the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m quite sure the PRC would have made such an attempt, although its outcome is impossible to guess today. The 1949 attack on the offshore islands controlled by Taiwan was a failure, and subsequent clashes in the Taiwan Strait revealed the growing determination on the part of those defending the Republic of China. Their advantage in the air was overwhelming, with the shootdown ratio reaching 4:1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Korean War made most countries perceive mainland China as a\u00a0ruthless invader, and the U.N. shut its door in the PRC\u2019s face for over twenty years. It must be stressed here that the Republic of China, albeit limited to Taiwan, was recognized as the only rightful Chinese state by a\u00a0much higher number of countries for as long as till the end of the 1960s. The phenomenon stemmed from the fact that the Republic\u2019s authorities weren\u2019t a\u00a0government in exile: they remained in their country and effectively controlled a\u00a0fragment of China. True, the territory in question included only the Taiwan Province and a\u00a0shred of the Fujian Province (the offshore islets), but the government had never been driven out of those areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the Kuomintang refugees initially believed they would return to mainland China soon! \u201cIs it worth growing tomatoes over here? Won\u2019t we reach the mainland by harvest?\u201d they kept saying. The Korean War changed it all because the Republic of China and the USA signed an alliance treaty and the Seventh Fleet of the U.S. Navy entered the Taiwan Strait. It\u2019s often said today those ships prevented communist China from invading Taiwan. True, but they also prevented the Taipei authorities from attempting to reclaim the mainland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American guarantees and the Korean War safeguarded the Kuomintang\u2019s control of Taiwan. So how did the mainland immigrants rule the island?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the conditions of\u00a0permanent martial law. While still in mainland China, the government had enacted a special law for the time of the communist rebellion. It included censorship and limited freedom of speech, assembly, public gatherings, and the press. The Kuomintang held a\u00a0monopoly on ruling and Chiang Kai-shek remained president until his death in 1975. Representatives of two other parties did run in parliamentary elections, but it was allowed for propaganda reasons and didn\u2019t make up a\u00a0truly democratic competition. On the one hand, the government handled the islanders with care; for example, they were exempt from compulsory military service because the authorities worried that it could be misconstrued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, the locals weren\u2019t allowed to rule: the \u201cmainland locusts\u201d held all the important offices. Furthermore, the government maintained an army of 600,000\u2014an enormous number in comparison with the island\u2019s population. Mandarin replaced Japanese as the official language, while the local language, Minnan, was removed from public life, the media, and education. We should remember here that Chinese writing is non-phonetic; in other words, it can be compared with Western digits, not with Western letters. For example, the number 21 is pronounced differently in various languages but looks the same in writing. The same applies to Chinese: it\u2019s uniform only in writing, but its pronunciation varies. Therefore, Taiwan\u2019s native pupils had to learn Mandarin, which was completely different from their everyday speech. All those factors caused much friction between the mainland immigrants and the Chinese living in Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s regime never became a totalitarian one (although it certainly was authoritarian). Democratic mechanisms were in place at universities and during local elections. Of course, there were taboo topics, such as the attitude to communism, the island\u2019s independence, or Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s permanent presidency. Everybody knew that the authorities wouldn\u2019t accept any deviations in those areas: communism was a murderous plague, Taiwan wouldn\u2019t become independent because Taiwan was China, and Chiang Kai-shek would hold his office until he decided to quit. Discussions on other matters were allowed, albeit to a limited extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should mention one more peculiar aspect here. Although the Republic of China presented itself as the only rightful Chinese state, it wasn\u2019t able to organize a\u00a0general election had it wanted to do so. Why? Because the mainland was ruled by communists. So how did the authorities arrange the work of the parliament which had been democratically elected in 1947? Its term of office was regularly prolonged! As a\u00a0result, the 1970s saw numerous MPs arrive at the sessions in wheelchairs and assisted by nurses, while many of their colleagues had already died. The parliament\u2019s rights were considerably limited anyway due to martial law. However, relatively free discussions were allowed at the Taiwan Province assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, since the Republic of China was actually little more than Taiwan itself, the islanders were more interested in that local assembly than in the all-China parliament. On top of that, the provincial body became elective at a\u00a0certain point. Only three parties were allowed, yet the government resorted to additional tricks. In the 1960s, a\u00a0candidate from the opposition was elected mayor of Taipei\u2014the capital city of not only the Taiwan Province, but also the entire country. Chiang Kai-shek invalidated the election as the head of state and then appointed the same candidate as administering mayor. So the man was anointed by the Kuomintang even though he maintained its rule was a\u00a0dictatorship! Nonetheless, he accepted the nomination to serve the local community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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West District, Taichung City, Taiwan, phot.: Michael Spadoni \/ Pexels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The system you describe functioned for decades until it was dismantled by Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who became president in 1978. Why did he decide to carry out a democratic transformation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiang Kai-shek was actually asked in an interview why Taiwan wasn\u2019t democratic. He searched through the Bible which he always carried (both he and his son were Christians) and quoted the passage about King David. The Israeli monarch wasn\u2019t able to build a\u00a0temple for God due to the wars unleashed by all the enemies around, but David\u2019s son, King Solomon, did accomplish the task. By mentioning that biblical story, Chiang Kai-shek meant that he wasn\u2019t able to democratize Taiwan due to the permanent threat of war, but his son Chiang Ching-kuo would make it\u2014and it proved true. Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975, when a\u00a0new, postwar generation was already living on the island. The country enjoyed intense internal growth, but it lost international recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The model which had worked well under the threat of an invasion from the mainland required a\u00a0modification. The turn of the 1970s and the 1980s saw a\u00a0crop of informal groups called dangwai<\/em> (literally \u2018outside the ruling party\u2019) which gathered democratic opposition activists. Chiang Ching-kuo dismantled the martial law structures of the state gradually, in a\u00a0typical Chinese way. For example, the opposition was formally prohibited from participating in elections, but its representatives did run as independent candidates. The party affiliation space on the voting papers was simply left empty. In 1986, members of the dangwai<\/em> movement established the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and martial law was lifted a\u00a0year later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The political and social life was liberalized because the government believed that it had real achievements under its belt, such as the country\u2019s incredible modernization, and so it would pass the\u00a0test of free elections. Those calculations proved correct: the Kuomintang won the 1992 general election. By contrast, we should remember that the students who demanded democracy in Beijing just three years earlier were killed by tanks on Tiananmen Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n