Today we’re going to be exploring Taiwan, starting in the 3rd century. That’s when
the first Chinese expedition to Taiwan was sent by an emperor, returning with the conclusion
it wasn’t of much value. Boy would the centuries prove him wrong.
Taiwan is a 13,000 square mile hilly and forested island roughly 100 miles from mainland China
(1). Sea and air lanes pass by and over Taiwan, as it’s strategically located southwest
of Japan, north of the Philippines, and northeast of Vietnam. It’s also the vital northeast
corner of the hotly contested South China Sea.
To the south, the Bashi channel sits between Taiwan and the Philippines (3). Between mainland
China and Taiwan lies the Taiwan Strait. Within the Taiwan Strait are a series of small islands
known as the Penghu, controlled by Taiwan. But one of the things that makes Taiwan unique
is that many islands between the main island and mainland China, the People’s Republic
of China, are in dispute. Notable examples: Taiwan claims and controls the Matsu Archipelago
and Kinmen islands, though as well later see, these islands so very close to the Chinese
mainland are not only disputed, but have been subject to artillery bombardment, fortification,
and even invasion.
Just above Taiwan lies Yonaguni Island, one of Japan’s most southern islands- far closer
than the 600 mile-away Japanese mainland. I like how author Jonathan Manthorpe in his
History of Taiwan described Yonaguni as a quote “period dot at the base of the question
mark formed by Japan’s island chain,” (12,25). So, a geographical conundrum accompanies
a cultural one we’ll address later: depending on your perspective, Taiwan can appear close
to both China *and Japan. An important detail, as we’ll see.
And with that, welcome explorers, to the first episode of ‘Mapping History’. Writing,
producing, and animating a video about the intersections of geopolitics and history takes
a long time. So if, and only if you’re financially able, consider going to patreon dot com slash
william c fox. Thanks to Frank, the most recent Patron to join.
In this video we’re going to talk about Taiwan from the start of recorded history
until now, and I’m gonna take a swing at answering the question: is Taiwan part of
China?
Dynasties and governments in exile have fled there. Invasions have been launched there.
Western powers have tried to root themselves in the East there. Trading posts have been...posted
there. Taiwan is a naval crossroads- crosscurrent, whatever the naval term for that would be.
It’s mountainous ranges prevented full control of the island by any outside power for at
least centuries- that’s what we have records of.
Its people reflect this heritage as well. It has an indigenous population separate from
Han Chinese, though Neolithic sites indicate a shared heritage (2,86). Those Indigenous
people make up about 2% of the population today, commingled, conquered, sharing the
island with early southeast asian ocean nomads, Han settlers, Japanese fisherman, Mainland
Chinese refugees, and more.
As mentioned, Chinese records reference Taiwan beginning in the 3rd century BCE (7). But
until the 1600’s, outside visitors to Taiwan were mostly fishermen, with a sprinkling of
outcasts and pirates too. This all changed in the 17th century, when the Dutch, English,
Spanish, Japanese, and two different Chinese dynasties set their eyes on the valuable island.
The first outsiders to have a go at controlling all of Taiwan were the Dutch, specifically
the Dutch East India Company, who constructed a fortification on the island in 1630. They
estimated just a thousand Han Chinese were living on the island at that time, who had
settled alongside indigenous people in the preceding centuries (2,87;7).
This number would increase rapidly after 1644, as the collapse of the Ming Dynasty to the
Qing Dynasty on the Chinese mainland sent refugees over the Taiwan Strait. Zheng Chenggong,
a holdout leader of Ming forces, was able to keep territory in Southeast China until
1662, but then was forced by the Ching to retreat off the mainland. As a last resort,
he laid siege to the Dutch-controlled Taiwan, succeeding in taking the island from the Europeans,
and establishing mainland-originated Chinese control over Taiwan for the first time (3).
Ming control of Taiwan lasted 20 years, until 1683, when the Qing Dynasty finally left the
mainland and conquered Taiwan (4&5). Taiwan was now an integrated part of mainland China.
To date, the Ching rule over Taiwan was longer than any other power that had, or would come
to control the island- over 200 uninterrupted years.
And this is a critical period for understanding the fluctuating national identity of the Taiwanese.
It is during this period when some identity with the mainland was able to develop. That’s
going to be important when looking at three other periods. First, the Japanese occupation
of Taiwan, the end of the Chinese Civil War, and the modern day. Let’s start with the
Japanese.
During the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, between China’s Qing Dynasty and Japan,
the surgent Japanese had eyes for many Qing possessions, including Taiwan. The war demonstrated
the weakness of the Qing, which was forced to sue for peace in 1895. And in the Treaty
of Shimonoseki, the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan (2,202).
Now, I’m just gonna spoil it here so we can have a productive conversation about this
period in Taiwan’s History: The Japanese held control of Taiwan from 1895 until their
World War II surrender to the US and Allied Powers in 1945. 1895 to 1945- that means during
a 50-year period in relatively recent history, Taiwan was controlled not by the Chinese,
not by imperial western powers, but by an imperial Eastern power- Japan- something that
left a distinct mark on the island and the identity of its inhabitants, a mark which
the Taiwanese debate and define to this day. When the Republican Chinese government arrived
in Taiwan after World War II, they found a people who could speak Japanese, dressed Japanese-
culturally they looked like the enemy that had ravaged mainland China in the war. But
how did the people of Taiwan come to see themselves during this period?
Upon acquisition of Taiwan in 1895, Japanese political leaders were faced with a 5-month
war of resistance, and once concluded, a Taiwan in difficult circumstances- the ravages of
war, disease, ethnic tensions. To deal with this, the Japanese chose harsh governing policies,
and coupled that with repressive cultural policies- they had foreign governors, and
they forced Japanese culture onto the inhabitants. The Japanese felt a paternal superiority to
their colonists, forcing people to speak Japanese, take Japanese names, wear Kimonos and other
traditional garb.
But here’s the rub. Economic development came under the Japanese as well. Agricultural
exports were expanded with new farming practices and subsidies, then diverted from their previous
destinations on mainland China to Japan. They brought education reform and new schools,
banking, currency, taxed previously untaxed land for use in expanded postal, energy, information
and road infrastructure (2). The colonizers invested in public health, disease treatments,
hospitals- a medical university. There’s a solid rundown of all this in Murray Rubinstein’s
Taiwan: A New History, listed in the description.
Before we get to World War II, an important change in mainland China. In 1912, the Qing
Dynasty, the dynasty which ceded Taiwan to the Japanese, was replaced by the Republic
of China, the ROC. During the second world war, western allies like FDR and Churchill
would come to see the Republic of China, and its leader Chiang Kai-shek not only as the
rightful government of mainland China, but of Taiwan as well (10). A return of Taiwan,
a retrocession, was planned should the allies prevail.
But while this retrocession was planned in cigar-filled rooms, World War II was proving
disastrous for Taiwan. Geographically like a natural aircraft carrier, Taiwan was strategically
located near the coast, a launch point for Japan’s ambitions in mainland China and
the Philippines. 200,000 Taiwanese men fought for Japan in the war, 40,000 died (9). Some
were patriotic, others were motivated by increased food rations. Encouraged volunteerism eventually
turned to conscription. Taiwanese women were sent as ‘comfort women’ for Japanese soldiers.
It became clear as the war progressed into 1945, and the focus drifted from Europe and
onto the Pacficic, that control of Taiwan would be returning to China. The Cairo Declaration,
produced when Chiang Kai-shek met with FDR and Churchill proclaimed: “all the territories
Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa [that’s Taiwan], and
The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic
of China.” In August of 1945, Japan’s unconditional surrender went into effect,
and the Cairo Declaration’s implementation began. Taiwan would be part of China once
more.
In October 1945, Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China ended Japanese colonial rule and
instituted a new governing structure for Taiwan. While there was excitement about the end of
colonial rule, the young and unprofessional Republic of China soldiers that came to replace
the Japanese soldiers foreshadowed the difficulty of ROC governance. In a documentary I watched
on this, one guy described it as, “the dog leaves, but the pig comes.” (9)
We’re flirting with dangerous territory here, but just imagine a normal person looking
at the previous group, the harsh Japanese. And then the new and corrupt Republic of China.
What were the Taiwanese supposed to feel about their situation? Nostalgia for their former
colonizers? Things were uncomfortable.
Stangely, Taiwan was ahead of the mainland which came to rule over it: trains, phone
line, energy production and consumption- metrics indicative of economic development- metrics
which wouldn’t be matched per capita on the mainland until the 80’s. Now you can
see the dilemma. Maybe why some Taiwanese would eventually come to desire independence.
Steven Phillips put it a little better: quote “both Taiwan and mainland China had changed
so much between 1895 and 1945 politically, socially, and economically that the retrocession
was less the restoration of historical ties than the attempt to forge an entirely new
relationship.” (2,275).
I’ve already alluded to the amateurish, sometimes shoe-less boy soldiers of the ROC
that landed on Taiwan. They acted like conquerors of a foreign people, looting, supplemented
poor pay with stolen property from Taiwanese homes.
But this was a mere symptom of Chiang Kai-shek’s corrupt governance, and general disregard
for Taiwan- a place, might I spoil the story a little, Chiang Kai-shek is going to very
desperately need very soon.
Taiwanese were largely excluded from the new governing structure. Administrators reappropriated
business, property, industry to themselves (12,190). In this way, it was like a new form
of colonialism rather than a reuniting with China. Ordinary Taiwanese started going hungry,
and getting sick.
Every source I read in preparation for this video spends time talking about just how bad,
corrupt, incompetent, cruel, indifferent to suffering the ROC officials and their enforcers
were. Even the US State Department would come to recognize the problems internally. But
the US didn’t stop helping Chiang Kai-shek because: on the mainland, standing opposite
of Chiang Kai-shek were Mao’s communists.
So every source mentions the mal governance. And then all the sources zoom in on a moment
when the tensions between the Taiwanese and their...administrators boiled over. A cascade
of violent political repression- decades of it, and it all traces back to some cigarettes.
On February 27th, 1947, a widow in Taipei was caught selling contraband cigarettes.
The ROC enforcers took her cigarettes and her cash, and tried to arrest her. The widow
begged for leniency, and the soldiers, well, they bashed her on the head with the butt
of a rifle. With a crowd forming, the soldiers realized they had stepped in it, and tried
to leave. But they were followed, and ended up firing into the crowd. They hit several
people- one died.
From here the violence grows. The next day, as news of the incident spread, protests formed
against the Republic of China rule. Crowds that gathered around the governor’s residence
were met with machine gun fire. Mass protests nationwide follow. Taiwanese civilians appropriated
government offices, took control of their island. Chiang Kai-shek declared martial law,
sending in thousands of mainland Kuomintang troops to put down this uprising.
But they didn’t just put down the movement in the streets- they started something that
would come to be known as ‘the White Terror’, the Kuomintang soldiers imported from the
mainland killed Taiwanese by the thousands: first the people in the streets questioning
their rule; next, they rounded up intellectuals, professionals, students- anyone who posed,
in their eyes, a potential threat to mainland rule. At least 10,000 were rounded up and
murdered- some estimates go as high as 28,000 (13).
What started after the cigarette scuffle is known as the February 28th incident, 2-2-8.
The martial law declared in this moment lasted 38 years, long after Chiang Kai-shek’s death.
And keep in mind, this is before Chiang Kai-shek is expelled from mainland China by Mao, so
this is the relationship developed between the Nationalists and the Taiwanese without
any knowledge of what was to come- that the Nationalists, like the Ming Dynasty, would
flee from the mainland, expelled, relying entirely on Taiwan for their future very soon.
And by soon, I mean two years, 1949. The communist forces of Mao found themselves in an advantageous
position against Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang Nationalist forces. From 1945-1949, the Nationalists
lost ground to the communists. By the end of 1948, over 30,000 refugees from the mainland
were arriving in Taiwan every day (2,299). Mao controlled both Beijing and Nanking, and
Chiang Kai-shek had to retreat from the mainland to.. well, we know: to Taiwan.
"Hey guys, ni hao. Know we were repressing y'all and - violence. But I was wondering
if you know, my army and I, and around 2 million refugees could crash on the couch for a couple
nights, set up a base of operations against the communists…?."
And that was that, here are the two China's: the Republic of China (still claiming control
of the entire mainland) was now contained on the island of Taiwan. And everyone was
waiting for the new People's Republic of China under Mao, which now controlled the mainland,
to come across the Taiwan Strait, and put an end to the whole thing, to eject Chiang
Kai-shek, control Taiwan, and conclude the Chinese Civil War. Any day now.
The governing system established from the fall of the Japanese empire between 1945 until
1949, the quasi-colonial rule from the Nationalist mainland, then the move of that Nationalist
power from the mainland onto the island itself- this system established in the interlude period
set the tone for the following decades. The people of Taiwan would not have a say in their
governance, any attempt to acquire it would result in the dissidents disappearance, and
any overtures from the Republican leadership to indicate the Taiwanese might have a bit
of representation in their government was a facade, a display for Chiang Kai-shek’s
new benefactor- the United States.
Why am I belaboring this point? Well, this is what surprised me in my research. When
we hear about Taiwan, if we ever do, we get this super condensed version: Taiwan is the
last bastion of Republican resistance against communist rule. But at the start, the Republicans
that ruled over Taiwan and evacuated to Taiwan were not doing so with the excited consent
of the people already there- the arrival and stay of this government in exile was painful,
and it took decades of repression and eventually, reconciliation, to achieve democratization,
and for the Taiwanese to have a real hand in their government. As the Taiwanese were
waiting for these processes to play out, their island was a prominent pawn in geo-politics.
So, as this series is about the intersection of geography, history, and politics, let’s
return there.
When Chiang Kai-shek and his exiled government arrived on Taiwan, World War II was a few
years in the rearview mirror. But so much was in flux. In particular, the relationship
between two massive powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, and the ideologies underpinning
their power. Across the globe, the US and the soviets believed that no conflict was
too small. The Soviets would arm and equip anyone willing to ally with them, the US did
the same. The Cold War, as I’m sure you know, was actually quite hot in some places.
And southeast Asia was one of them. Both the US and USSR involved themselves in China’s
Civil War, and had stakes in the outcome.
When Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan, the US thought they had
lost the whole game in Asia. Mainland China was gone, and the USSR would have an ally
in Mao: a new huge communist power was on the map. The moment Chiang Kai-shek retreated
to Taiwan, the US counted him out completely.
But Kai-shek, though he seemed clearly down for the count, took an aggressive posture,
one of temporary exile on Taiwan; this was a tactical retreat; it would be a regrouping
of Nationalist forces which would eventually lead to the Republic of China retaking the
mainland with Taiwan as a base of operations. This was, to be clear, posturing, but no one
ever said posturing doesn’t occasionally lead to form. Some countries like the Soviet
Union went ahead and recognized Mao's People's Republic of China. Others waited to see if
Chiang Kai-shek would succeed.
The United States? Well, they eventually bought into his narrative that Kai-shek would retake
the mainland, perhaps cynically so. Sure, Chiang Kai-shek had this framing of retaking
the mainland any day now, but even if he didn’t, might the endeavor of keeping Taiwan anti-communist
be worthwhile? Every inch and mile in the Cold War seemed to matter.
And with a new conflict emerging on the Korean peninsula, the Americans decided to double
down. President Truman moved naval vessels into the Taiwan Strait in 1950 (2,321). It
was meant to stop Mao’s forces from invading Taiwan while the US was preoccupied with the
Korea War.
In the meantime, US Aid bolstered the Republic of China’s grip on the island for the international
stage, even allowing them to hold the China seat on the UN Security Council. And the government's
land reforms, forcing large landowners to sell to small farmers in exchange for government
industries, set the stage for economic expansion domestically. Despite the rhetoric of retaking
the mainland, a status quo was emerging.
This mini Cold War between Mao’s People’s Republic of China and Chiang Kai-shek’s
Republic of China inside the larger US-Soviet Cold War heated up notably in 1954. After
the Korean conflict ended in a stalemate, preventing Mao from having an American force
directly on his border, Mao set two goals: first, to take the China seat on the UN Security
Council, and two, to fight Chiang Kai-shek’s rule indirectly, by retaking islands between
the mainland and Taiwan. Shelling of offshore islands began in summer 1954; and People’s
Republic of China soldiers actually landed on the Dachen islands in 1954 (14). The conflict
was heating up.
President Eisenhower even publicly floated the use of nuclear weapons on mainland China
during this period, but eventually decided to restrain US involvement. Mainland shelling
of various Taiwanese-controlled islands would continue on occasion all the way through 1979
(15).
Since we mentioned the 70’s, let’s hop there. In the early 60’s, President Kennedy
saw the status quo of these two China’s as ridiculous, particularly having Chiang’s
ROC holding the China seat on the Security Council. But it wasn’t until 1971, during
the Nixon Administration, that the US approach to China relations transformed rather fundamentally.
Nixon saw past the bipolar world of the rivalrous US and Soviet Union. What Nixon foresaw was
a world with somewhat cooled stable relations between the US and Soviet Union, but with
new relevant rising players on the geopolitical board: Europe, Japan, mainland China. He wrote,
quote “We simply cannot leave China forever outside the family of nations.” (16,437).
What this meant, in effect, was that the United States needed to accept reality: Taiwan’s
government was Taiwan’s government, not mainland China’s government; it’s name,
Republic of China, was a misnomer. And the sooner the US accepted this reality, the sooner
it could normalize relations with mainland China, and engage with an emerging power on
the world stage.
Nixon had designs for this during his run for the White House in 1968, and his ambition
became fruition in 1971. In that year, the U.S. supported the People’s Republic of
China in taking the China seat in the UN Security Council. The Republic of China, Taiwan, was
ejected completely from the UN. At roughly the same time, the Nixon Administration began
normalizing relations with mainland China, while sidelining the aging Chiang Kai-shek.
The 70’s were a turning point for Taiwan, the end of an era. The loss of the UN Security
Council seat was the start. Chiang Kai-shek’s death in 1975 ended his era. And then in the
late 70's, domestic political pressure foreshadowed a fatigue with the one party rule over the
island, a new period of Taiwanese democratization was on the way.
You see, when the Nationalist forces, the Kuomintang, retreated from the mainland and
set up a government in exile in Taiwan, they kept the governing structure they had on the
mainland. Even though, in reality, they were governing an island, they postured that they
would take the mainland again soon, and so maintained this shadow mainland governing
structure, and mostly disincluded the Taiwanese. After they retook the mainland, Taiwan would
be a county of a province of China, so why should the Taiwanese enjoy outsized representation
in a government for all of China?
This was obviously silly, and over the years it became increasingly clear that this was
a rationale- a justification to maintain one party Kuomintang rule over Taiwan. But the
pressure increased to make change. At some point the people of Taiwan- that is to say,
the indigenous people and the Han Chinese who lived on the island before the end of
the Civil War, would need to be involved in their own governance. The four groups here--
the indigenous, the Han Chinese that lived on the island before, the soldiers and families
and offspring that arrived or were born on the island after the civil war, and the Kuomintang
political establishment that ruled with an iron fist, these four would have to figure
it out- develop a new system.
At a minimum, it was becoming clear that the one party rule was bizarre for a so-called
republican bastion. As Chiang Kai-shek's health faded, his son Chiang Ching-kuo increasingly
took on the responsibility of governance. It looked like an attempt to set up dynastic
rule in Taiwan. Thank God we can oppose the communists by showing them the true republican
way- establishing a monarchy!
It looked like an attempt to set up a dynasty because it was. With Chiang Kai-shek's death
in 1975, Chiang Ching-kuo took over as president.
Taiwan’s new king-err, president was looking spectacularly weak, and a new clash with protesters
would weaken him further. Taiwan had been under Martial law for thirty years, and it
was illegal to form an opposition party against the Kuomintang. But despite this prohibition,
a set of demonstrators marched on Human Rights Day 1979, a fledgling opposition group, the
tang-wai.
On December 10th, 1979, secret police confronted and engaged these tang-wai Human Rights Day
marchers. Violence broke out. It led to the arrest of many opposition figures, and a crackdown
from the Nationalist government. But this incident, despite the suppression, is seen
by many as the birth of the democratization movement in Taiwan. It raised the profile
of many tang-wai figures, planted further resentment of Kuomintang rule among a segment
of the population, and to use flowery language, inspired a new generation.
Democratization protests became more bold as the years went by. By 1986, many of the
tang-wai leaders went on to form the Democratic Progressive Party. Though formally forbidden
from forming an opposition party, they did so anyway, and critically, won votes in elections.
Martial law was finally lifted in 1987. The seed of a pluralistic Taiwan far more recognizable
to us today was planted in this moment. Democratization continued- continues in Taiwan.
But that doesn’t quite end our story. Through the 90’s, aughts, 10’s, Taiwan remained
a small knight on the geopolitical chessboard- Playing Beijing and Washington off each other
is a skill each Taiwanese leader learns. Bill Clinton sent aircraft carriers into the Strait
of Taiwan in 1996 to deter mainland missile provocations. George W. Bush publicly opposed
Taiwan independence in 2003 when he, busy with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, perceived
the provocations of the Taiwanese president as too extreme (18). Arms sales and bilateral
trade increased during the Obama years. And of course, then president-elect Trump made
news in 2016 when he took a congratulatory call from the Taiwanese president, the highest
ranking American to do so since 1979, though it’s still unclear if there was intent to
upend the “One China” policy- that is, to think of China and Taiwan as an ‘it’
and not a ‘they’, and to treat it diplomatically as a single entity.
A perfect transition: we still haven’t answered a critical question, one that underlies this
whole video.
Is Taiwan part of China? Administratively, the answer is clearly no. In our language,
it’s hard to follow the diplomatic and grammatical minutiae. “The two Chinas are China” - “China
AND Taiwan ARE one” - it starts to have the same belabored language as the tripartite
father, son, and holy ghost. But beyond the administration and geopolitical entanglements,
should we perceive Taiwan as part of China?
Chinese records don’t really note Taiwan until the 16th century. The first to control
outposts there were the Dutch. The Qing Dynasty saw Taiwan as a bit of an afterthought, though
they did control it longer than any other power, including Japan. But by the 20th century,
Taiwan was quite distinct from the Chinese mainland because of Japanese colonialism.
Tensions arose when they reunited with the mainland for a small interlude between 1945-1949.
And then there’s a decent argument to be made that the Nationalist rule in 1949, though
obviously Chinese, and proclaiming itself mainland-- it lead Taiwan down yet another,
extremely different path than, well, here’s the trouble, than the ‘rest’ of China.
I personally find Taiwan to be distinct, perhaps in a similar way to the distinction between
North and South Korea and their different culture and dialects. To extend the comparison,
North and South Korea have expressed in words for decades a desire to reunify. The South
Korean government has a whole department to help handle it based on the reunification
of Germany in 1990.
So too have the Taiwanese over the years expressed a desire for reunification. Obviously at the
beginning Chiang Kai-shek wanted to retake the mainland, but we’re talking about something
more tangible now- something perhaps chosen and negotiated, or perhaps forced across the
Strait by mainland China’s military might. The People’s Republic of China obviously
wants to control Taiwan, for Taiwan to be part of it (or recognize that it is already
part of it), though that seems an expression of power rather than an intellectually serious
examination of shared culture.
Support for reunification on the island is hardly unanimous. The people of Taiwan often
choose leaders that say they will stand up to China, defend Taiwanese sovereignty, pursue
representation in the UN as a separate nation.
It might be time for the rest of us, like Nixon did in 1971, to recognize reality. There
is China, and there is Taiwan.
Watch this video next. I don’t even know which video YouTube put there, but hey, give
it a shot. I’m sure it’s not embarrassing and pretentious. Thanks for watching episode
one of this new series, mapping history. If you have a suggestion for more spots on the
map for us to ‘historize’ together, tweet me @williamcfox. Later y'all.