Pro-Independence for Taiwan: Taiwan is Ready; Are You?
written as an op/ed piece for the campus Asian American journal, Generasians

By Karen Chang ’00
February 15, 1999

Today, a semi-cold war rages on between mainland China and Taiwan regarding Taiwan's status: eventual reunification with the mainland or independence as a separate nation. The issue has been raised and skirted repeatedly in meetings between the two as well as between each region and other countries. As a Taiwanese American with strongly pro-independence parents, I will concede that I entered my research of this topic with biased lenses. However, my quest to better understand this issue has only convicted me more strongly that Taiwan should and must stand as an independent country from China. On what merits have I formed this opinion then? My views take into consideration cultural/linguistic aspects, concrete historical bases, differing political ideology, and Taiwan’s current social situation.

The first, and perhaps most abused reasoning for independence is based on differing cultural and linguistic heritages. Yes, the pre-dominant language in Taiwan today is Mandarin. However, a large percent of the population continues to speak Taiwanese within the home as well as within social groups. Taiwanese is shrinking in importance largely because it is not officially taught within schools. In fact, students have been reprimanded for speaking Taiwanese at school. Naturally, the ubiquity of Mandarin across the world also makes it the more functional/practical language for official communication. However, that is not reason enough to subordinate Taiwanese as a language on the island. Taiwanese and Mandarin are spoken differently but share almost the same writing system, perhaps making it a Chinese dialect. Similarly, Taiwan shares many cultural traditions with China, yet possesses distinct features. For instance, while numerous aspects such as the Moon Festival and Chinese New Year are as celebrated as they are in China, they each have their own unique characteristics, from food to festivities.  I say that cultural and linguistic consideration is abused for explaining why Taiwan ought to be independent because one may easily argue that China is very diverse culturally and linguistically even across the mainland, from province to province. However, decades of severed communication have taken each region down its own cultural and linguistic path of development, and is inevitably part of its differentiation from China.

Taiwan’s linguistic and cultural similarities to China are undeniable; this reality is largely linked to historical factors.  A Mandarin-only policy within schools was instituted with the entrance of the Kuomintang (KMT) army that fled from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949, taking over political power on the island. An important question to ask is "Who has been in control of Taiwan throughout history?" Few people know that Taiwan was only under mainland China’s direct political control for eight years in total, at the end of the 19th century. Even then China did not have legal sovereign control over the island. Throughout the majority of Taiwan’s history, it has been occupied and governed by foreign powers, under Dutch, Japanese, and American governance, to name a few.  When the KMT retreated to Taiwan, it declared that their government, though based in Taiwan, held official sovereignty over all of mainland China as well. However, Taiwan relinquished this claim in 1991 when it ended the "Period of Mobilization for the Suppression of the Communist Rebellion." Their focus was no longer to reclaim the mainland, but to increase Taiwan’s international recognition and participation on the global circuit. China’s government has not taken to this move happily.

This leads us to examine political factors. Consider this: Taiwan has seen tremendous political changes in the last decade that match its rapid economic development, with 1996 marking the island’s first democratic presidential election ever. What was China’s response? Holding live missile exercises 50 miles off the shore of Taiwan. Such intimidation tactics are only a foreshadowing of measures more coercive to come. Taiwan has repeatedly demanded that China relinquish its right to use of force.  China has repeatedly refused to exclude the possibility. This threat is China’s means of suppressing the voices of pro-independence advocates in Taiwan.  Part of this threat is based on fear of Taiwan’s potential influence on pro-democracy advocates on the mainland.

What was the U.S.’s response to the missile exercises? We sent troops over to Taiwan’s strait in typical global watchdog fashion. Looking from a longer time range perspective though, the U.S.’s response to the two regions on this issue has been at best ambivalent. On the one hand, during Clinton’s summer ’98 visit to China, he surprised the world by plainly stating that the U.S. does not support Taiwan independence, nor a two-China policy (i.e., a "one China, one Taiwan" policy), and does not support Taiwan's membership in international organizations whose members are sovereign countries. On the other hand, the U.S. continues to sell arms to Taiwan, a measure supported by the 1971 Taiwan Relations Act, which justifies the sale of weapons to Taiwan for the island’s security needs. This political balancing act that the U.S. is currently playing is the consequence of maintaining the economic benefits it reaps from both sides. Yet its attempt to remain neutral on the issue is grounded on a general principle not to become involved in the domestic issues of foreign countries. This is exactly what China desires -- that China-Taiwan relations be considered a domestic issue, since Taiwan, in China’s opinion, is a part of China.

What is the opinion in Taiwan? It too is multi-faceted. The three major political parties are mainly distinguished by their position regarding Taiwan-China relations, from the stance of full independence on one end of the spectrum (Democratic Progressive Party) to eventual reunification on the other end (The Kuomintang and the New Party). However, they all come together under one common denominator, a firm position against Communist rule over Taiwan. China today continues its crackdown on any democratic political groups that form, legitimizing arrest and imprisonment of democratic leaders on the basis of trying to subvert Communist rule in China. Taiwan on the other hand has embraced democracy, and is practicing it successfully today.

Taiwan’s situation seems awfully similar to Hong Kong’s; some argue that it is no different. They are misinformed. Taiwan was ceded in perpetuity in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. Hong Kong on the other hand was leased to Britain. Therefore, we cannot equate these two situations.

We are faced with a question of what to do today in the here and now. Therefore reasoning for or against Taiwan’s independence cannot be examined solely through historical lenses. Taiwan today is a mix of about 85% "native Taiwanese" (those who moved to Taiwan 350 years ago and consider themselves Taiwanese) and 15% mainlanders (those that fled to Taiwan with the KMT after the civil war China in 1949). The predominant language used is Mandarin, a second language for those of my grandparents’ and even parent’s generation. Taiwan is special in having this population mix. What keeps them united then? I would say that it is the history that they are making together, the culture they are developing together, the lifestyle that they are living together (and doing so peacefully) in Taiwan that makes them a cohesive nation. If you traveled around both China and Taiwan, you would see that these two regions are about as different as night and day, except for the language that the words are written and spoken in. But I don’t see Canada and the U.S. merging anytime soon over such a commonality as that.

Over the last few decades, Taiwan has survived multi-directional pressures from China and from the world, watching their dramatic turnover from military rule to democracy, and from economic poverty to prosperity. Taiwan is ready to stand by itself and join the rest of the world in participating in global affairs and issues. It has only been denied the opportunity. The U.N. Charter holds to the principle of respecting every nations’ right to self-determination. Are we ready to give Taiwan that chance?

Note: references to China are meant to refer to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and not to the Chinese people directly.

 

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