One China:
Taiwan is a part of China

by Kenny Coyle
Communist Party of Britain

Recent remarks by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian warning that Taiwan 
will follow "its own Taiwanese road" and recommending an island-wide 
referendum on independence have met with a firm response from the Chinese 
Government in Beijing, which warned him not to "play with fire".

This war of words has led to a sharp rise in tension in the Taiwan Straits. 
Stocks on Taiwan's exchange plummeted and business confidence has been 
rocked.

Already members of Chen's administration have been forced to "clarify" his 
remarks and maintain that Taiwan's administration is still committed, like 
its mainland counterpart, to a one-China policy.

Chen's underlings attempted to play down the remarks, one official 
suggested the media should not "over-interpret" the video speech to the 
World Federation of Taiwanese Associations conference in Tokyo at the 
weekend.

However, the published text of Chen's speech is crystal clear and 
unambiguous. In it he stated:

"Taiwan is not a part of someone else, not someone else's local government, 
and not someone else's province. Taiwan cannot become the second Hong Kong 
or Macao because Taiwan is an independent sovereign state.

"In short, it must be clearly distinguished that both Taiwan and China are 
a country on either side of the straits. China's so-called 'one China 
principle' or 'one country, two systems' is to change the status quo in 
Taiwan.

"It is impossible for us to accept this because whether Taiwan's future and 
the status quo should be changed is an issue not to be decided by any 
country, government, party, or individual.

"Only the great 23 million people of Taiwan have the right to decide on 
Taiwan's future, destiny, and status quo. How do we make a decision when 
necessary?

"Referendum -- it is the ideal and goal we have been pursuing over a long 
period of time and the common idea of everyone."

Chen's strategy though was almost certainly aimed as much at Washington as 
Beijing. Anti-China forces in the Bush administration are keen to be seen 
as more active and vocal in defence of Taiwan's administration.

At a time when US military muscle is being employed in Afghanistan and 
perhaps soon in Iraq, the Taiwanese President upped the stakes reminding 
the US of its pledge to defend the island if hostilities with the Chinese 
mainland broke out.

Yet there is likely to be muted support on this occasion for Chen as US 
policy publicly and privately is against Taiwanese independence.

The reasons are complex. Partly there is a fear that a Taiwanese 
declaration of independence could spark a full-scale assault from the 
mainland, which has said it favours peaceful reunification of the island 
with the rest of China but does not rule out the use of force in extreme 
circumstances.

Second, the growing economic might of the People's Republic of China (PRC) 
has forced US Government and business circles to adopt more realistic 
approaches.

To understand why the Chinese remain so firm in their determination to 
oppose what they describe as the "small gang of splittists" it is only 
necessary to look at the past century or so of history of the island.

In April 1895, through an aggressive war against a weak imperial China, 
Japan forced the Chinese to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki and occupied 
Taiwan.

In July 1937, Japan launched its all-out war of conquest against China.

In December 1941, the Chinese nationalist government issued the 
Proclamation of China's Declaration of War Against Japan, announcing that 
all treaties, agreements and contracts concerning Sino-Japanese relations, 
including the Treaty of Shimonoseki, had been abrogated, and that China 
would recover Taiwan.

In December 1943, the Cairo Declaration was issued by the Chinese 
Nationalist, US and British Governments, stipulating that Japan should 
return to China all the territories it had stolen from the Chinese, 
including Northeast China, Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago.

The 1945 Potsdam Proclamation agreed by China, the United States Britain 
and the Soviet Union stipulated that: "The terms of the Cairo Declaration 
shall be carried out."

In August 1945, Japan surrendered and promised in its instrument of 
surrender that it would fulfill the obligations laid down in the Potsdam 
Proclamation.

On October 25, 1945, China recovered Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago, 
resuming sovereignty over Taiwan.

However, between 1945 and 1949 the Chinese Nationalists of the Kuomintang 
(KMT) led by Chiang Kai-Shek resumed their [civil war] campaign, which had 
only been temporarily and very partially put on hold during the anti-
Japanese war, against the Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong.

On February 28, 1947, popular discontent against the KMT on the island 
boiled over into a mass uprising which was only put down by KMT forces 
after an estimated 20,000 people were killed.

On October 1, 1949, the Central People's Government of the People's 
Republic of China was proclaimed, replacing the Republic of China.

Chiang and the KMT remnants were forced to withdraw to Taiwan and its 
surrounding islands.

The Kuomintang, remained in power in Taiwan, first under the dictator 
Chiang, then under his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, and Lee Teng-hu.

In 1991, Lee ended emergency rule, which had permitted the domination of 
Taiwan's national assembly by mainland delegates appointed in 1947.

During the 1990s the anti-KMT opposition gained a number of seats in the 
assembly.

In 1999 a split developed in the KMT when James Soong challenged the 
official candidate for the 2000 presidency, Vice President Lien Chan, and 
was expelled. The opposition candidate, Chen Shui-bian, won the election, 
with Lien placed third behind Soong.

During the election, Chen had pledged that his Democratic Progressive Party 
would not push for separation from the mainland.

Chen's essential problem is that in pushing for international support for 
separation he is swimming against the tide.

For the two decades after the 1949 revolution, the socialist camp and many 
non-aligned nations strongly supported the PRC and many capitalist 
countries likewise began to recognise, however reluctantly, the new reality 
in China, while the US maintained a solid position of support for its anti-
communist ally in Taipei.

However, during the 1970s, as People's China and the US established better 
relations, the Taiwanese regime became increasingly isolated.

In October 1971, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 
2758, which kicked out the Taiwan authorities and gave China's UN seat to 
the Government of the PRC.

This was followed in September 1972, by a Sino-Japanese Joint Statement, 
establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries, with Japan 
recognising the government of the PRC as the only legitimate government of 
China, and promising to abide by Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation.

In December 1978, China and the US issued a Joint Communique in which the 
US side recognised "the government of the People's Republic of China as the 
sole legal government of China" and acknowledged "the Chinese position that 
there is but one China and Taiwan is a part of China".

Today, despite the efforts to link diplomatic recognition with handsome 
trade and aid deals, Taiwan's only full diplomatic status in Europe is with 
the Vatican City.

Its main embassies are in a dozen or so Central American and Caribbean 
states, a handful of African states and a sprinkling of tiny island states 
in the Pacific, such as Paulu and Tuvalu.

Last year Macedonia, the former Yugoslav republic, reverted to recognition 
of the PRC after a two-year spell in which it had established diplomatic 
relations with Taiwan after Taipei pledged up to US$300 million in cash and 
more than US$1 billion over a longer period.

Just two weeks ago, the South Pacific island state of Nauru broke relations 
with Taipei.

The Taiwanese are hoist on their own petard. The Taipei administration 
continues to designate itself as the "Republic of China", it maintains 
support for Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, as of course does the PRC, 
which causes considerable problems with many of its anti-PRC allies.

However, the Taiwanese also lay claim to sovereignty over the entirely 
independent Republic of Mongolia.

Just as bizarrely, the Taiwanese claim that the Chinese mainland capital is 
still Nanjing and not Beijing, to which Mao switched the seat of government 
after his civil war victory.

Despite this, relations have indeed improved and have come a long way since 
the 1950s when both sides shelled each other's territories and Chiang 
occasionally launched commando raids on the mainland.

In 1979, Beijing launched a series of proposals, beginning with the 
National People's Congress's "Letter to Taiwan Compatriots", which proposed 
the two sides should establish "Three Links" (trade, postal, and 
transportation) and "Four Exchanges" (economic, cultural, technological, 
and sports).

In response, the Taiwanese administration outlined the "Three Nos" policy 
(no contacts, no negotiations, and no compromise).

The People's Republic's position has been fairly constant for the best part 
of two decades; a process of peaceful unification in which the PRC retains 
its goal of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" with the capitalist 
character of the Taiwanese economy remaining for "a long time to come".

The "one country two systems" policy has already proved effective in Macau 
and Hong Kong, two former colonies which returned to Chinese sovereignty in 
the late 1990s. Despite the dire predictions of some in the West, neither 
territory shows signs of losing its unique character anytime soon.

The Taiwanese regimes have always been caught in a dilemma. Their claim to 
be the legal government of all of China and Mongolia has long been a 
fiction, their attempts at international recognition have run aground.

Even the very idea of "independence" illustrates the Alice-in-Wonderland 
fantasy of the Taiwanese separatists. After all, if the rightful sovereign 
government of all China is in Taiwan, the island would, in effect, be 
declaring independence from its own territory.

A less fantastic option and one that has been canvassed openly in the 
Taipei press over the past couple of years is that the Taiwan 
administration renounce its claims on Mongolia and the mainland and seek 
recognition as a new state. However, this is unlikely to be any more 
successful.

The obvious alternative is to make a serious response to Beijing's 
proposals which would allow the Taiwanese to negotiate a large measure of 
real autonomy.

The PRC has stated clearly that it would not station troops or impose a PRC 
administration on the island.

Economic realities are pushing the two sides together in any case. Total 
Taiwanese investment in the mainland over the past decade has been 
estimated at over US$40 billion.

Cultural and language ties make mainland China the obvious centre of 
attention for Taiwan's hard-pressed corporations.

The mainland has quite deliberately encouraged this both on pragmatic 
economic grounds and with the longer term aim of encouraging what used to 
be termed the "overseas patriotic bourgeoisie", that is to say ethnic 
Chinese businesses outside the mainland willing to invest in China.

Taiwan had long developed profitable links with Hong Kong and Macau during 
their colonial periods. Now the colonial powers have gone and the trade 
ties remain but the territories' status has changed to Special 
Administrative Regions of the PRC.

Without any major ethnic, language or cultural differences with their 
mainland compatriots and with growing trade and investment ties that will 
inevitably bring Taiwan under the wing of the mainland's rapidly developing 
economy, the rational case for separatism can only grow weaker.

The last hope of the separatists is to count on backing from both the US, 
which has always seen Taiwan as a dagger pointed against the PRC, and Japan 
which is increasingly interested in developing itself as a regional power 
and wants to curb Chinese influence in East Asia.

Chen's outburst may have had one positive outcome which is to focus once 
again on the Cold War anomaly that is Taiwan and encourage peaceful and 
realistic dialogue in the direction of reunification of the Chinese people 
and their territory.

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Website: http://www.communist-party.org.uk