Relations between China and Taiwan [Text: Unless it's otherwise specified,
when we say "China," we mean mainland China, and when we say "Taiwan," we're referring to
Taiwan as an island, irrespective of government and politics.] are hairy,
to say the least. But the friction between these two places is by no means a novel thing. That part
of the world has seen more than its fair share of bloodshed, and for worse or for better, China and
Taiwan's pasts are inextricably intertwined. In this video, we explore their shared past, focusing
on the conflicts fought between China and Taiwan throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
In 1911, Sun Yat-Sen's victory in the Xinhai Revolution saw the end of the Qing dynasty and
imperial dynasties in China in general. When the dust settled, the Republic of China or
ROC had been established. But Sun Yat-Sen wasn't powerful enough to take control of the country.
He was forced to negotiate with Yuan Shikai, commander of the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Army.
As a result, Yuan became the first President of the ROC. Once in power,
Yuan deemed himself the Emperor of China and tried to reinstate a monarchy.
This drew the ire of Sun Yat-Sen and everyone who had fought for a republic. In 1916, Yuan
died of uremia, and the Beiyang Army split into warlord factions, further fragmenting the nation.
In 1919, Sun Yat-Sen re-established the Kuomintang or KMT (also known as the Chinese Nationalist
Party) and strived to reunify China. About six years later, Sun Yat-Sen succumbed to cancer,
and the KMT's reins passed to Chiang Kai-shek. Working in league with the Chinese Communist Party
or CCP in what was called the First United Front or KMT-CCP Alliance, Chiang Kai-shek hoped to
crush the warlords in a vast military campaign known as the Northern Expedition. The United
Front enjoyed support from the USSR, while Imperial Japan supported the Beiyang warlords.
In April 1927, less than a year into the Northern Expedition,
underground elements of the KMT slaughtered some 5,000 to 10,000 CCP-aligned communists
in Shanghai to weaken the CCP so that Chiang Kai-shek could consolidate his rule.
The CCP was largely undone, and the United Front ceased to be.
Still, the KMT continued the Northern Expedition
and had secured control of the ROC by December 1928. Their rule, however, was shaky at best,
as the KMT had been at war with CCP-aligned communists since the massacre in Shanghai,
and the remnants of the CCP were regathering and gaining momentum. Until 1936, the KMT and CCP went
at each other's throats in one of the bloodiest wars in human history: the Chinese Civil War.
Meanwhile, throughout all of this, Taiwan was occupied by Imperial Japan, with the Japanese
having taken hold of the island during the First Sino-Japanese War back in the late 19th century.
As if China wasn't suffering enough already, Japan launched a full-scale attack on the
mainland in 1937, operating out of the puppet state of Manchukuo, which it established in its
1931-to-1932 invasion of Manchuria. The ensuing conflict was known as the Second
Sino-Japanese War, in which the Japanese bolstered production in Taiwan to feed their
war machine. With the Japanese at their doors, the KMT and CCP put their civil war on hold
to band together against a common enemy. About two years into the Second-Sino Japanese War,
something equally as terrible was unfolding in Europe.
Without delving too deeply into China and Japanese-occupied Taiwan's involvement in the
Second World War (as we've covered those topics in previous videos) the Japanese Navy made extensive
use of Taiwan, operating out of the ports of Keelung and Takau. Additionally, over 200,000
Taiwanese served in the Japanese military from 1937 to 1945, with more than 30,000 losing their
lives. In the end, with the defeat of Imperial Japan, Taiwan was placed under the governance of
the KMT (which was, as of then, still the ruling faction), and the Chinese Civil War resumed.
After the end of the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, the CCP's forces grew to include over 3
million troops. From 1946 to 1949, the communists absolutely belted the KMT,
forcing the nationalist government to flee again and again, until the KMT ultimately crossed the
Taiwan Strait and set up in Taipei, bringing some 1.3 million anti-Communist Chinese with them.
In October 1949, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the
People's Republic of China or PRC, governing the mainland out of Beijing. At this point, the KMT
still held some other islands too, including but not limited to Hainan and Pescadores Islands.
No peace agreements were ever signed between the government in Taiwan and the CCP on the mainland,
and Taiwan's status remains ambiguous. The CCP believes the island is merely a self-governing
province of the People's Republic of China. On the other hand, the government in Taiwan
believes Taiwan is an independent country, though they have yet to make an official declaration of
independence, as doing so would likely lead to war. From 1949 to the present, tensions between
China and Taiwan have erupted into a number of conflicts, some more violent than others.
For now, we're going to delve into the First, Second, and Third Taiwan Strait Crises.
From 1949 to 1978, the KMT ruled Taiwan under martial law. Concurrently, in the early 50s,
the Korean War had begun, with the US and UN supporting the South and the PRC supporting the
North. In March 1950, the PRC landed some 115,000 troops on the island of Hainan in the South China
Sea and wrested it from the ROC. Fearing what would happen if the PRC took Taiwan before they
achieved victory in Korea, the US placed its Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Strait later that
year, offering its support to Taiwan. In February 1953, about six months before the Korean Armistice
Agreement, the Seventh Fleet pulled out, and in August the following year, things escalated.
With the American fleet gone, the ROC wanted to strengthen its position in the Taiwan Strait.
It placed 58,000 troops on the island of Kinmen and 15,000 on the Matsu Islands. These islands are
far closer to the mainland than Taiwan, and the PRC was understandably upset about it. On the
11th, PRC forces started shelling Kinmen and Matsu and then the Tachen Islands. Among the dead were
two American military advisers. This was a stark reminder for the Americans
that a communist invasion of Taiwan was still a very real possibility.
On the 12th of September, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended dropping nuclear bombs on China,
but President Eisenhower, thankfully, stood against such a drastic solution,
and it didn't come to pass. Though, with Japan freshly irradiated, the threat wasn't
taken lightly, and while island-to-island fighting continued through to May 1955,
catastrophe was ultimately avoided, and relatively few people died.
In 1958, however, after both sides had had some time to lick their wounds, the PRC and ROC went
at each other’s throats again. Because the islands of Kinmen and the Matsu Islands hadn't had enough,
the PRC started shelling them again on the 23rd of August. Over the following two days, a PRC force
attempted an amphibious landing on Dongding Island, southwest of Kinmen. But the ROC
staved them off. As with the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, the US was heavily involved. Once again,
there was talk of nuclear weapons, but this time, the USSR chimed in. Nuking China would force the
Soviet Union to step in and honour its commitments to the PRC. This would be World War III.
To support the ROC without inciting nuclear holocaust, the US Air Force deployed a range
of aircraft, including F-100D Super Sabres, F-101C Voodoos, F-104A Starfighters, and B-57B
Canberras. The Navy also outfitted ROC F-86 Sabres with new AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles
so they could wreck the PRC's Soviet-made MiG fighters. The Seventh Fleet stepped in, too,
and American artillery bolstered the defences on Kinmen. In a dogfight on the 24th of October,
ROC pilots used the aforementioned Sidewinder missiles to destroy 25 PRC MiGs.
They destroyed six more throughout the rest of the conflict, for just two F-86s shot down.
The so-called crisis tapered due to US-PRC diplomacy late in 1958. As strange as it sounds,
the two sides agreed to shell each other on alternating days of the week. They also
agreed to inform each other of exactly what they were going to shell. As the conflict went on,
the live shells were replaced with propaganda leaflets. All in all, the casualty figures
weren't too different from the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, though around 80 civilians were killed.
After that, the war between China and Taiwan was fought on more of a political front for some
43 years. Among the more pivotal events were the UN and the US recognising the PRC over the
ROC in 1971 and the lifting of martial law by the KMT in 1987, allowing other parties to compete in
governmental elections. While that was a point towards democracy, Cross-Strait relations still
weren't ideal. In 1995, the president of the ROC, Lee Teng-hui, wanted to visit Cornell University
in the US to give a talk about democracy. The PRC hated the idea because the US had,
of course, unrecognised the ROC and an election in Taiwan was coming up. The PRC responded by, in
quotation marks, "testing missiles" in the Taiwan Strait, hoping to send a message to the ROC.
This was answered, in turn, with a massive display of military might by the US, which sent
the assault ship USS Belleau Wood, the destroyer USS O'Brien, the frigate USS McClusky, and the
supercarrier USS Nimitz into the Strait in July and December and some additional ships in March
the following year, forming two aircraft carrier battle groups. The PRC built up its naval forces
in the area, too. There was talk of amphibious assaults and occupations, and the PRC continued
with their missile tests, but little more came of it. In fact, their aggression boosted Lee
Teng-hui's favour in the election by about 5%—an election he ended up winning with a vote of 54%.
Of course, there's more to China and Taiwan's relations than that, both during the Chinese
Civil War and following the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, but we'll save those stories
for another time. For now, had you heard about the three Strait Crises before today? Do you know
anything about Cross-Strait relations we didn't cover in this video? It's a sensitive topic,
so do you disagree with anything we said? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.