Taiwan has a very long history with China in its early years of colonization, and since China gave Taiwan to Japan during the World War II, Taiwan formed an autonomous government and wanted to gain political autonomy from China. The problem considering the autonomy of Taiwan has been around for centuries. On one hand, Taiwanese people claim their land was separated from the Mainland China for a long time and should be reasonable to gain autonomy, while the Chinese government says that Taiwan is still an inseparable part of China and should maintain unified. Many of us are concerned whether Russia has the right to claim Crimea as one of its lands, and the problem between China and Taiwan is similar. There have been discussions in Asia about whether Taiwan has the right to be independent, which is to gain political independence from China, but settling this complicated dispute is not easy. If wrongfully put, the economy of both lands could be harmed, and the worst case would be war between the two lands. Taiwan has the right to be autonomous, but the fact could be that they shouldn’t be autonomous. Speaking from different angles, it would be best if Taiwan can maintain its current relationship with China, if not even closer relationship.
Democratization of Taiwan
Taiwan is an island country which is located off the southeast coast of China
between the Taiwan Strait and the Philippine Sea. It has a land area of about 32,000
square kilometers, and claims another 3,700 square kilometers of sea around it, giving it
close to a total of 36,000 square kilometers for itself. The land of Taiwan consists mainly
of mountainous terrain in the east while the west has flat plains which can be compared to
the middle central part of the United States. The country has a population of about 22
million people in which 9.7 million of those people are part of the labor force. Some of
the groups that make up this population include native Taiwanese (which includes Hakka,
the originals of the land), mainland Chinese, and aborigines.
Taiwan: Maps, History, Geography, Government, Culture, Facts, Guide & Travel/Holidays/Cities | Infoplease.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com/country/taiwan.html
Darwin's law of natural selection reveals that the natural world is indeed a brutal place, where those unfit for their environment will be supplanted by the better adapted. Just as the Galapagos Islands showcased the process of evolution within the natural world, the island of Taiwan has been a petri dish for natural selection of the political sphere even as the first western powers showed interest in the island. This early pre 1750s period of Taiwanese history had the factions of the Taiwanese Aborigines, Chinese and Dutch all striving for control over the island. As in early Taiwan along with the rest of the world, typically the actuality of who will have de facto rule is often dictated by military might rather than modern ethical ideal of who morally has the right to govern but this strength to grasp power is not the sole aspect of legitimacy to rule. There must also be additional attributes to gain power and keep it, such as the will to claim the title of ruler and a level of political competency to govern the land and its people. Looking back in hindsight the Taiwanese Aborigines, in comparison to the Dutch and Chinese, fulfill the requirements of political legitimacy, through military strength, governing prowess, drive for ownership and modern ethical views, answering the historical question, that has seeped into current political issues, of what faction had the right to rule early Taiwan.
Famously close to the Chinese mainland and centrally located in the heart of the southeastern seas, the tiny island of Taiwan became desirable only within the last few centuries as the global market expanded. Before the extension of international trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, Taiwan was inhabited by a number of linguistically distinct aboriginal peoples who are thought to have arrived some 70,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Despite politically charged claims to the contrary, Chinese interest in the island was not kindled until Dutch occupation in 1621, which demonstrated a potential for profit in its resources and strategic location. When the imperial Chinese Qing dynasty acquired Taiwan from the descendants of the merchant pirate-lord who had ejected the Dutch from their colonial seat, they had little use for it. After considering and rejecting various policies, including quarantine, the Qing reluctantly pursued a colonization project of their own, hesitant to pour money into the tiny “ball of mud” off their eastern coast.
Before these different interpretations of the actions that transgressed on February 28 are discussed the initial expectations for the future of Taiwan after WWII held by the Taiwanese and KMT must be understood as they were the fuel and foundation for the countering interpretations. When it was known that the KMT would hold jurisdiction of Taiwan, the Taiwanese had “euphorically optimistic expectations” of returning to Chinese rule, believing that the Sate building of Taiwan would be an “immediate success, if not perfection” (Myers, 168, 169). This delusion stemmed from their fifty year experience of the highly efficient Japanese government, and they naturally expected the KMT administration to perform with a “similar efficient system, cum democracy” (Mye...
Taiwan and the One China Principle
Since the conclusion of the Chinese civil war in 1949, China and Taiwan have functioned as separate nations. There has always been the promise by Taiwan to reunify with the mainland, but no real, concerted effort has ever been made. This and the actions of the United States on behalf of Taiwan have caused China to become threatened by the situation in recent months. The Chinese government released a statement last week that will bring the situation to a head in the near future. In light of China's statement and the response of Taiwan and the U.S., we have to ask what the situation means for China/U.S. relations.
Edwin K. Snyder, A. James Gregor and Maria Hsia Chang, The Taiwan Relations Act and the Defense of the Republic of China, p69.
However, the US does not blame itself but stresses that the rise of China leads to a threat to Taiwan security and leads to some uncertainty factors in Asian-Pacific Ocean. The US attributes the bad Sino-US relations to China’s fast development. The Bush Administration and Clinton Administration took over the US government successively after the cold wa...
Stood until 1970…when President Carter asked that the U.N. sees Taiwan as China…The U.N. agreed