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Tension between China and Taiwan The confrontation between the island of Taiwan known also as Formosa and continental China has been lasting for almost two thousand years. The historians note that the island of Formosa was inhabited by the barbarian non Chinese tribes long before the Chinese from the continental part moved towards the seacoast 1. Now the island is populated with eleven million people. The island of Taiwan has been the trouble point for all the times because though it is an island, its political and cultural life has been under the shade of the continental China.
Formerly the island was well protected by the channel separating Taiwan from the continent and which was wider than that separating Britain from Europe. The technological progress made the island vulnerable to air attack due to the military aircraft development. The conflicts between the continental China and Taiwan have occurred all the time. In ancient times the Chinese from the continental part sent their troops to explore the island and to punish barbarians inhabiting the island. Formosa was used as a shelter from the storm by the Japanese sailors. A considerable part of the Japanese settled at the island.
The Spanish and the Dutch came to the island to establish their marine bases. The island became an area of conflicts between the Dutch Protestants and Spanish Catholics. At last the Dutch had overcome the Spaniards and the pro- European development of Formosa began. A great amount of the Chinese who were protesting against the ruling dynasty left the continental China and settled at Formosa. The Chinese authorities considered them to be the traitors and rebels.
This gave the first wave of the Chinese movement to Taiwan and became a factor defining the former and the future opposition to continental China. These people were given the worst lands and they were real pioneers which may be paralleled with the first American and Australian settlers, i. e. they were the brave people who fought for their survival. The first military conflict between China and Formosa occurred after the immigrants from the continent kicked out the Dutch first and then they decided to move to the continental China to liberate the Chinese people 2. Formosa used to be conquered by the Chinese from time to time.
Riots and abortive independence movements took place so often that it became common in China to say of Formosa, "Every three years an uprising; every five years a rebellion. " There were more than thirty violent outbursts in the 19 th century 3. The conflict between continental China and Taiwan has deep historical roots. The island has been a subject of disputes for a long time. When the Europeans applied to China to protect their ships from the Taiwanese pirates the Chinese regime answered that Taiwan was beyond China. The island was under the French and the Japanese ruling. But every time the occupation did not last long.
World War II and the world map cut out affected Taiwan. In 1943 Allied Powers at the Cairo conference decided to agree with Chiang Kai-shek's request that Taiwan be "returned to (Nationalist) China. " 4 The decision was taken without a concern of the Taiwanese people. That was the euphoria of the winners which was in the line with the Germany partition, a great revision of the borders in Europe and the general trend to reshape the map of Europe (Baltic countries, Western Ukraine, Yugoslavia etc). According to the world history all these geographic political changes led to the revision of the territories sooner or later. The tension between China and Taiwan has the multi century record. It has been sharpened especially in modern times.
In the new age of globalization and the advanced military technologies the political solution of the problem became crucially important. The modern world is fragile due to the global process in the world politics. Any conflict may involve a number of countries and result in a chain of military conflicts which may lead to a full scale global war. The Chinese regime keeps threatening Taiwan all the time. China can not accept the independent Taiwan in any way. China is planning to introduce anti-secession legislation during the annual session of the National People's Congress 5.
This legislation is an intention of China to oppose any move of Taiwan towards the independence. The Chinese officials declare they would never permit any independence of Taiwan. The situation is very controversial. Taiwan has been de-facto independent for decades. Actually it has never been a part of China unless it was occupied temporally. Premier Wen Jiabao says that the people of China will never allow separating Taiwan from China 6.
This political declaration does not have any historic or political basis. According to the Chinese authorities the anti-secession law is aimed to stop the drift of Taiwan towards the independence but it may have the opposed effect. It may escalate the formalization of the Taiwan's independence. It may cause the adoption of the opposed law by Taiwan on the anti reunification. The actions of China create the extreme tension in the region. The question of the judicial independence of Taiwan is a question of the sovereignty.
Taiwan as it was stated above de-jure is not a part of China. At the same time its formal dependence of China creates the dangerous judicial precedent when a country has a right to control another independent country though its formal independence has not been admitted. Taiwan is a very dangerous issue in terms of the probability of the military conflict between the super states. There are some threatening pessimistic prognoses on the possible armed confrontation between the USA and China because of the Taiwanese issue 7. For reasons of the operational efficiency the US will be tempted to strike at military targets inside China. Precisely because of this China may be tempted to threaten escalation against the US bases and territory.
A confrontation over Taiwan could also involve highly dangerous nuclear threats from both sides as they try to compel the other to back down. The nuclear threat may become a real danger for the entire world. The history of China shows that China used to apply force in various cases to resolve its political disputes. Taiwan may become the epicenter of a new global conflict.
There are three parties involved into confrontation now, namely, China, Taiwan and the USA. This confrontation is harmful for the parties involved as well as for the entire world. Thus, Taiwan is interested in escalation of the American presence in the region. The USA has its own geopolitical interest in the region and China may consider the presence of the USA to be the Taiwan encouraging to the formal separation. So, the parties should come back to the common sense and work out the mechanisms of eliminating the dangerous threat. The tension created between Taiwan and China should be softened because this tension creates the war danger in the Pacific region.
This tension should be softened by the entire world community and not by Taiwan and China only. The threat of the military conflict between China and Taiwan has been studied by various politicians as well as by the intelligence. U. S. experts campaigning against political moves to boost military ties with Taiwan unveiled satellite images they said showed Beijing was too weak to invade the democratic island any time soon 8.
This conclusion of experts is too insufficient to bring the quietness. The matter is not in the military strength of this or that state but in danger that the possible forthcoming conflict may involve a number of states spreading it in the entire region. WWI began as a trivial incident from the point of view of the global policy but it involved a number of states expanding to the global conflict. The solution of the problem could be as following. Taiwan which is independent de-facto would not insist on its independence de-jure, China stops escalating the military presence and the United States stop supporting Taiwan militarily. In this case if China fails its obligation and starts escalating the military pressure over Taiwan, The United States would be legitimate to renew the military aid to Taiwan.
On the other hand if Taiwan insists on its formal independence China would stop its obligations according to the agreement and the United States would stop the military aid of Taiwan. Taiwan should be represented in all the major international organizations like WTO, UNO etc. There will not be any problems for China in this case. What is more the status of the member of the international organization could be granted disregarding the dependence of Taiwan upon China. There are examples of such solutions in the world modern history. For example, Ukraine after WWII had been granted the status of the Security Council Member of UNO though it was a part of the Soviet Union.
This fact did not humble the status of the USSR as a member of the Security Council. It proves that the membership in the international organization is not applied to the independent states only. Such membership does not depend upon the sovereignty of the state. But in this case Taiwan will get an opportunity to protect its de-facto independence in the international organizations. Another solution could be found if Taiwan and China agree on some special status of Taiwan as an associated part of China with a higher level of autonomy, but such solution is very difficult to arrive at due to the numerous problems which were collected by the tension between Taiwan and China. Any solution of the China Taiwan problem would be constructive if it leads to peace in the region.
Taiwan has been developing rapidly. Its economy allowed the country to take a certain position which is not the last one in the world according to the technological progress. Recognizing the difference between itself and Taiwan, China pledged to use the formula of 'One-nation, two-systems' if it annexed Taiwan. As with the 1984 Hong Kong agreement between Britain and China, this pledge would allow Taiwan...
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Research essay sample on Tension Between China And Part 1
