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Context

• After completing its three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan, China’s military announced that it’s “ready to fight” any attempts to achieve Taiwan’s ‘independence’ or any interference by foreign forces.

Origin of the conflict

About Taiwan

• Taiwan, earlier known as Formosa, a tiny island off the east coast of China, is where Chinese republicans of the Kuomintang government retreated after the 1949 victory of the communists — and it has since continued as the Republic of China.
• The island is located in the East China Sea, to the northeast of Hong Kong, north of the Philippines and south of South Korea, and southwest of Japan.
• What happens in and around Taiwan is of deep concern to all of East Asia.

Origin of the conflict

• Taiwan observes October 10 — “double 10” — as its national day; it was on this day in 1911 that sections of the Manchu army rose in rebellion, leading ultimately to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the end of 4,000 years of the monarchy.
• The RoC was declared on December 29, 1911, and it found its feet in the 1920s under the leadership of Dr Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Kuomintang (KMT) Party.
• Sun was succeeded by General Chiang Kai-shek, whose actions against the Chinese communists, who were part of an alliance with the KMT, triggered the civil war that ended in victory for the communists and the retreat of Chiang and the KMT to Taiwan.

Consequences

• Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has believed that Taiwan must be reunified with the mainland, while the RoC has held out as an “independent” country.
• The RoC became the non-communist frontier against China during the Cold War, and was the only ‘China’ recognised at the UN until 1971.
• That was when the US inaugurated ties with China through the secret diplomacy of Henry Kissinger, national security adviser to President Richard Nixon.
• The US backs Taiwan’s independence, maintains ties with Taipei, and sells weapons to it — but officially subscribes to PRC’s “One China Policy”, which means there is only one legitimate Chinese government.
• Just 14, mostly very small, countries recognise Taiwan.

The Escalation

• In 1954-55, and in 1958, the PRC bombed the Jinmen, Mazu, and Dachen islands under Taiwan’s control, drawing in the US.
• Congress passed the Formosa Resolution, authorising President Dwight D Eisenhower to defend RoC territory.
• The PRC and ROC then arrived at an arrangement to bomb each other’s garrisons on alternate days – this continued until 1971.
• The most serious encounter was in 1995-96, when China began testing missiles in the seas around Taiwan, triggering the biggest US mobilisation in the region since the Vietnam War.

Recent developments in Taiwan

• In 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died, martial law was lifted, and Taiwan got its first democratic reforms.
• Starting from the 1990s, and despite the missile crisis, relations between the PRC and RoC improved, and trade ties were established.
• As the British prepared to exit Hong Kong in 1999, the “One China, Two Systems” solution was offered to Taiwan as well, but it was rejected by the Taiwanese.
• In 2000, Taiwan got its first non-KMT government, when the Taiwanese nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidency.
• In 2004, China started drafting an anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan; trade and connectivity, however, continued to improve.
• Today, the two big players in Taiwan’s politics are the DPP and KMT, broadly the parties of the island’s Hakka inhabitants and the minority mainland Chinese respectively.
• The 2016 election of President Tsai marked the onset of a sharp pro-independence phase in Taiwan, and the current tensions with China coincided with her re-election in 2020.
• Taiwan now has massive economic interests, including investments in China, and pro-independence sections worry that this might come in the way of their goals.
• Inversely, the pro-reunification sections of the polity, as well as China, hope that economic dependence and increasing people-to-people contacts will wear out the pro-independence lobbies.

Current round of tensions

• In 2020, amid worsening US-China relations over Covid and trade, US sent its highest-ranking delegation till then to Taipei. During the visit, the Chinese conducted a military exercise in the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from mainland China.
• In October 2020, President Xi Jinping asked the PLA to prepare for war, triggering alarm in Taiwan, which read it as an open threat.
• In 2021, the President Joe Biden Administration declared America’s “rock solid” commitment to Taiwan.
• In 2022, Taiwan reported Chinese jets in its air defence zone. Xi warned that he would “smash” any Taiwanese move towards independence.
• Tensions rose once again when then Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan to demonstrate American “solidarity” with the island. China responded to the development by launching missile strikes on targets in the seas around Taiwan and imposing restrictions on the import of the island’s food brands.
• The latest round of tensions has come after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen went to the US earlier this month and met the current House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

TIMELINE October 1949: Mao Zedong's communists take power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists in a civil war. The KMT flee to the island of Taiwan and form their own government in Taipei in December, cutting off contacts with mainland China. In 1950, Taiwan becomes an ally of the United States, which is at war with communist China in Korea. The US deploys a fleet in the Taiwan Strait to protect its ally from possible attack. In October 1971, Beijing takes over China's seat at the United Nations, previously held by Taipei In 1979, the United States cuts formal ties with Taiwan and establishes diplomatic relations with Beijing instead. Washington goes on to develop a nuanced Taiwan policy were it "acknowledges" China's claim to the island, which is not the same as accepting Beijing's claim of sovereignty. The US also maintains trade and military ties with Taipei. It opposes both Taiwanese independence and any attempt by China to forcibly take the island. In late 1987, Taiwan residents are for the first time permitted to visit mainland China, allowing families to reunite. In 1991, Taiwan lifts emergency rule, unilaterally ending a state of war with China. The first direct talks between the two sides were held in Singapore two years later. In 1995, Beijing suspends talks in protest at a visit by Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui to the United States. In 1996, China tests missiles off Taiwan to deter voters in the island's first democratic presidential election. In 2000 elections, the KMT loses power in Taiwan for the first time. Over the next few years trade links between the two sides improve. In March 2005, Beijing adopts a law authorising the use of force if Taiwan declares independence. In April, KMT chairman Lien Chan makes a landmark visit to Beijing for talks with Chinese leader Hu Jintao. In 2008, Taiwan and China resume high-level talks after the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou is elected president on a Beijing-friendly platform. In 2010, they sign a sweeping Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement and in 2014 hold the first government-to-government talks since separation. In January 2016, Tsai Ing-wen, from the traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, wins presidential elections. However, in June, China suspends all communications with Taiwan after the new government fails to acknowledge the "One China" policy. In December 2016, US president-elect Donald Trump breaks with decades of US diplomatic policy by speaking directly, by telephone, with Tsai. In January 2019, Xi Jinping says that the unification of China and Taiwan is "inevitable". In 2021, Chinese military jets make hundreds of incursions into Taiwan's defence zone. In October, US President Joe Biden says the United States will defend Taiwan if China attacks it, in comments later partly walked back by the White House. Tsai confirms that a small number of US troops are present in Taiwan to help train its forces. On August 2022, after days of speculation and stern warnings from Beijing of unspecified "consequences", US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lands in Taiwan during a tour of Asia. The highest-profile elected US official to visit the island in 25 years says her visit demonstrates her country's "unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy". A furious China vows "punishment" and launches its largest-ever military exercises in the area, encircling Taiwan on August 4.

PRACTICE QUESTION Q) Discuss the implications of the current round of tensions between China and Taiwan on India’s economic interests. (150 words)

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-global/what-is-behind-china-taiwan-tussle-8549016/