The beef between China and Taiwan: A century old dispute
Conflicts are always happening in the world and we are going to talk about one of the most significant political conflict that has been going on recently.
The conflict we will be discussing is the conflict between China and Taiwan, and more specifically “How political conflicts affect people within the countries, and the rest of the world.”
History of China and Taiwan
In China and Taiwan there is a conflict over whether or not Taiwan is a part of mainland China.
First known settler of Taiwan were Austronesian tribal people, which possibly were from southern China.
After a relatively brief spell as a Dutch colony (1624-1661), Taiwan was administered by China's Qing dynasty from 1683 to 1895.
From the 17th century, a number of migrants came into Taiwan, mostly from Fujian, China.
In 1985, Taiwan was ceded to Japan from the Qing dynasty due to the loss of the war against Japan. While after World war two, Taiwan was handed back again to the Republic of China (ROC).
After a few more years, the civil war broke out. As Chiang Kai-Shek lost the war, he fled to Taiwan with his KMT governments and supporters which is about 1.5m people in 1949.
This group, referred to as Mainland Chinese, dominated Taiwan's politics for many years though they only account for 14% of the population. Chiang established a government in exile in Taiwan and controlled Taiwan after on.
Other political power participating in the conflict?
And the tensions over Taiwan are spiking over a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi - and this has only further strained relations between Washington and Beijing.
Washington's long-standing policy has been one of "strategic ambiguity" to the extent that it would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan.
Officially, it sticks to the "One-China" policy, which recognises only one Chinese government but it has also pledged to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons and stressed that any attack by China would cause "grave concern".
The issue of Taiwan has also strained relations between the US and China. Beijing has condemned any perceived support from Washington for Taipei - and has responded by stepping up incursions of military jets into Taiwan's air defence zone since Joe Biden's election.
Influence on the people, the country and the world.
The conflict between the two countries has impacts all around the world, such as how valuable Taiwan and China are as a Trade partner. The U.S for example needs Taiwan for a lot of its imported goods, this means that the U.S is on the side with Taiwan as if Taiwan became part of the PRC trade deals and diplomatic relations may change.
How does it affect Taiwan ?
- Taiwan has a high dependence rate for China, getting 40% of exports from them, China is incredibly (economically) important to Taiwan.
How does it affect the people ?
Research has found that many Taiwanese citizens are not very concerned about the recent tensions between China and Taiwan.
The Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation surveyed citizens in October 2021 to find out if they felt that China and Taiwan might one day go to war.
The majority (64.3%) of respondents said no.
For most Taiwanese people it seems to fall somewhere in between. A June 2022 survey found that only 5.2% of Taiwanese supported independence as soon as possible, while 1.3% were in favour of unification with mainland China at the earliest possibility.
And for the people from mainland China, most of them are expecting to have Taiwan back as a part of China and some of their relatives or friends are in Taiwan and as the tense atmosphere between China and Taiwan, they and their families are separated.
Conclusion
The conflict between China and Taiwan has been going on for a long time, having a significant impact on the rest of the world. Hopefully in the future the conflict can stop so that there can be peace within China and Taiwan.
Thanks for reading.