By Cozette Calderon
Recently, Taiwan has been hit with a diplomatic defect and a new election. First, let’s look at how we’ve gotten here with a quick history lesson: Taiwan is an island off the coast of China that has a native population often referred to as Aborigines—natives that have residented on the island for many years in tribal societies before Taiwan was colonized. In the 1600s, overseas trade became popular, leading foreigners to Taiwan, where they struggled for control over the island because it was a strategic trade location. The Dutch and the Spanish were the first to claim colonies, but the Dutch kicked out the Spanish, who capitulated. During this same time, the dynasty that was ruling China—the Ming dynasty—was crumbling and made a pirate warlord their leader. The warlord tried defeating the rising dynasty of the Qing but failed, escaping to Taiwan. However, the Qing dynasty eventually took over the island because the war leader resigned. In 1895, Japan won the first Sino-Japanese war. Japan was given the island of Taiwan, which they kept for 50 years. The event that ended their reign was WWII, where Japan faced major losses. In a peace treaty, the islands Japan had conquered (including Taiwan) were released from Japanese rule and given to the Republic of China, which was mainland China. However, a civil war started between the Communist Party and the Kumintang. The communists were the victors, causing the Kumintang to flee to Taiwan. The Communist Party renamed China the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan argues that under Article 2 of the San Francisco Treaty, Taiwan technically doesn’t belong to the People’s Republic of China.
All this being said, Taiwan wants to remain independent, and China views Taiwan as part of their territory.
Recent updates:
Taiwan recently had a presidential election. The winner was an independence-leaning candidate: William Lai Ching-te. His induction into office infuriated China because of his stance on Taiwan being an independent country. Following his election, The U.S Department of State stated, “Taiwan is a reliable, likeminded, and democratic partner.” This angered China, influencing them to release a statement criticizing the US, saying how the U.S is “blatantly making irresponsible remarks about a decision made independently by a sovereign state.” Moreover, Manilla also made a statement, congratulating the new Taiwan leader. China called the Philippine ambassador, warning Manilla, “not to play with fire.”
The new president, Lai, entered the position of president with a peaceful attitude towards China, stating how he will attempt “exchange and cooperation with China” based on “dignity and parity.” Lai vowed to “replace confrontation with dialogue,” stepping into the role of a tough but friendly neighbor.
This new president, strong-willed, did not deter a Chinese official from stating how “The elections of China’s Taiwan region are local elections and China’s internal affairs. Regardless of the result, it will not change the basic fact that Taiwan is part of China and there is only one China in the world.”
Such a comment makes sense coming a Chinese official, but a surprising blow was also delivered recently:
On top of this new election, Nauru, a south pacific island, has diplomatically defected to China. Nauru has promised to no longer recognize Taiwan as an independent country, instead recognizing them as tied to China. This has become official by Nauru’s president flying to Beijing to sign documents to restart diplomatic relations with China. This has dealt a blow to Taiwan, leaving them only 12 official allies with countries like the US and Japan as unofficial allies.
Despite the fact that China has stated in the past that peaceful methods of unification could be beneficial and preferred, China has never renounced force to unify China and Taiwan. Following their recent upgrades to their military, China has stated they are readying their military for an invasion.
Though the U.S is starting to be spread thin with its alliances with Ukraine and Israel, and the U.S is trying to remain semi-impartial in the Taiwan and China conflict, one can easily recognize that a conflict is rising, and the U.S. will have some influence on the conflict because any democratic nation going against China is attractive for U.S. interests.
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