Independent nation or China territory?

A brief history of Taiwan

• Malay-Polynesian people first settle island around 4,000 years ago• Han Chinese began settling Penghu •

in the 1200s1600s- Chinese begin settling in large numbers after Dutch claim as colony1662- After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong •retreats to Taiwan and leads a revolt that expelled the Dutch from the island

A brief history of Taiwan

• Zheng Chenggong rules the Kingdom of Tungning from 1661 to 1683. There he hopes to rebuild his troops and use Taiwan as a base to regain mainland China for the Ming dynasty

1683- Qing forces from mainland China invade and capture China. The Qing government •would rule Taiwan over the next two hundred years. 1885- Qing government makes Taiwan province of China, “upgrading” their status

A brief history of Taiwan

1895- Japan, which had actually sought Taiwan since 1592, wins control of the island from the Qing government following the First Sino-Japanese War •Japanese leader Goto Shimpei •would helpmodernize Taiwan and industrialization takes off in at the turn of the 20th century

A brief history of Taiwan

1921-1934- Taiwanese political activists repeatedly but unsuccessfully ask Tokyo to establish a Taiwan parliament • Japan's rule of Taiwan ended after it lost World

War II, but the Japanese rule had long lasting effects on Taiwan and Taiwanese culture

• China again controls Taiwan under the Chinese Nationalist Party •(Kuomintang)Also known as The Republic of China (ROC)

A brief history of Taiwan

• After the Chinese Communist Revolution, • General Chiang Kai-shek •and his Kuomintang forces fled mainland China and sought refuge in Taiwan, quickly establishing their strict military control on the island

A brief history of Taiwan

• Now in exile, the Kuomintang government continues to claim sovereignty over China

• In China, the victorious Communists establish the People’s Republic of China (PRC)•claiming to be the sole representative of China including Taiwan and portraying the Kuomintang government on Taiwan as an illegitimate entity.

Mao Zedong proclaims the PRC’s establishment

A brief history of Taiwan

• Over the next few years an additional two million Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan

• Chiang Kai-shek becomes the ROC president and will remain so until 1975

1951- The Kuomintang create the Taiwan Provincial Assembly, •still insisting that their ROC still ruled all of China• From this period through the1980s,

Taiwan was governed by a party-state dictatorship, with the Kuomintang (KMT)as the ruling party. • Strict military rule continued

A brief history of Taiwan

• The Taiwanese majority gradually democratized by installing several economic and social reforms

1960s-1970s- The ROC begin to develop into a prosperous, industrialized, and developed country with a strong and dynamic economy when the PRC was lagging far behind(Taiwan still has a much higher GDP per capita than the PRC)• During Cold War, most

Western nations viewed ROC has only legitimate government of China

A brief history of Taiwan

1986- Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) forms in defiance of ban on new parties1987- KMT-controlled government finally lifts martial law• After the 1988 death of President

Chiang Ching-Kuo, his successor, Lee Teng-hui, •continued to hand more government authority over to the Taiwanese and democratize the government• In schools, emphasis now over local

history and culture rather than Chinese culture and history

Taiwan today

• The DPP and KMT both now dominant forces in Taiwanese government

• The DPP tends to lean toward Taiwan independence, but the KMT tends to favor eventual Chinese reunification

Taiwan today

• The status of Taiwanese culture is debated. Is it part of Chinese culture or a distinct culture? Speaking Taiwanese has become a symbol of the localization movement

• It has a dynamic capitalist, export-driven economy with gradually decreasing state involvement in investment and foreign trade. Some large government-owned banks and industrial firms are now being privatized

Their economic system is more like the United States than the PRC

The People’s Republic of China’s perspective

• Despite Taiwan’s commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences with China, China has consistently refused to renounce the use of force against Taiwan

• China currently has hundreds of missiles aimed at Taiwan

• Despite this, many Chinese citizens still respect Taiwan’s declared independence

Sources

• All pictures are from Wikipedia Commons web site athttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page• Taiwan: A Political History

By Denny RoyEdition: illustratedPublished by Cornell University Press, 2003ISBN 0801488052, 9780801488054255 pages• http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/tw.htm• http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2000/fall_nationalsecuritycouncil_ohanlon.aspx