What Does Taiwan Want? It Wants to Be Taiwan
Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu [Chinese Taipei]” have been called into service. The PRC government permitted observer status in the World health assembly from 2009 to 2016 under the name “Chinese Taipei” but refused to even tolerate this milquetoast label once the shift from a Kuomintang (KMT) to a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration occurred.
To be clear, Tsai ing-wen is the president of the republic of China (Taiwan): She stands in front of the flag of the republic of China (abbreviated as roc) and celebrates as a national holiday oct. 10, the day in 1911 when the Wuchang uprising began that led to the end of the Qing dynasty and the founding of the roc. The (Taiwan) in parentheses is, however, increasingly prominent. The roc is an historical anchor, the symbols of which have gradually shed much — though not all — of their baggage left over from the martial-law era that began with the occupation of the island by the KMT following World War ii and formally ended in 1987.
and while there are some citizens of roc (Taiwan) who may want the roc to regain its former prominence, the long-term trend has been toward an increasing Taiwanese identity, with those expressing a dual Taiwanese-chinese identity diminishing and a pure Chinese identity constituting just a sliver of the population. a confluence of factors, from concern about the PRC leadership’s enhanced repression (in the mainland and in hong Kong) to pride in Taiwan’s phenomenal handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, have boosted Taiwanese identity to previously unseen heights.
all of this underlies the name “Taiwan.” i am neither an roc national nor someone who identifies as Taiwanese based on family ties. i have spent considerable time living in and studying Taiwan, but i am nonetheless cognizant that i am an outsider. i am not truly part of Taiwan, and writing what people who call this place their home may “seek” requires humility. But when i participate in a meeting on reforms to the legal system, or attend one of the common public protests, or even take the dog for a walk in the park, i am reminded that what people around me want is to keep exercising their right to self-determination: to enjoy their hard-won freedoms and to make choices about the direction their collective lives will take in the future.
There is debate regarding under what name that future should be. The shorthand term “proindependence” is commonly understood as referring to people who want to declare Taiwan’s existence as Taiwan alone and drop the roc. i worry that people less versed in the terminology see pro-independence as implying Taiwan is somehow currently under the thumb of an outside oppressor. The PRC has never controlled Taiwan, though its looming presence is a constant factor in Taiwan’s choices. This month, during the annual “two sessions” political meetings in Beijing, the PRC leadership reiterated that there is absolutely no wiggle room on the position that Taiwan is part of the PRC. Concerns about how and when the PRC might shift this rhetoric to reality are well grounded. The us is vital for Taiwan to remain Taiwan without the added “province” language demanded by Beijing.
taiwan NEEDS us support
Taiwan cannot maintain its existence free from Beijing’s control without us support, and it is in Washington’s interest to maintain Taiwan as a democratic society. i would no doubt get a range of answers from a person-in-the-street poll about what exactly that us support should entail. But there are three themes to the us-taiwan relationship that i expect would emerge and that are reflected in the Tsai administration’s messaging: defense, trade and international space.