back to my favorite topic

Wow, I haven't written a post about Taiwan in months...how unlike me.

I was reading an article this morning with a pretty good explanation of Taiwan's political situation.

As an aside, the article also includes an explanation of Taiwan's history by former President Lee, that clearly articulates a point that I often have trouble making; that China does not have any reasonable claim to sovereignty over Taiwan:

Lee pointed out that Chiang's regime was originally asked by the United States in 1945 to go to Taiwan to set up a temporary administration, since the US itself was somewhat overstretched at the time. There were no implications of sovereignty attached, no more than there are to the United Kingdom's current responsibility for Basra in Iraq. The whole question of who was to own what was to be sorted out at the peace treaty to be negotiated after the end of the war.

Chiang's regime then made a land grab - based on the gentlemen's agreement - claiming to have recovered China's "lost" territory, and returning to Taiwan as the sovereign power, which, of course, it wasn't.

In 1952 the final claims of the war were settled in the San Francisco Peace Treaty. By this time there were two rival Chinese regimes, Mao's in Beijing and Chiang's in what it is becoming fashionable in Taipei to call "occupied Taiwan". In the treaty Japan finally renounced the sovereignty over Taiwan it had gained in 1895 and that sovereignty was given to - nobody, a situation that remains to this day.

Anyway, back to the main point...

The author uses the premise that any act of aggression by China will push Taiwan's voters further towards independence-minded candidates, and hypothesizes that the recent inflammatory statements by President Chen and ex-President Lee are designed to provoke Beijing into initiating such acts. It is possible that some of Taiwan's politicians may use China's highly reactionary nature to advance their agendas, but politicians aren't the only ones annoying Communist China. Last month, 150,000+ marched in Taipei to advocate that Taiwan (currently the "Republic of China") officially rename itself as Taiwan. Although it's a possibility, it isn't highly likely that all of those citizens were involved in a ploy to advance the DPP party agenda. I think it's just becoming clear to an increasing number of Taiwanese that they have to stop cowering in China's shadow, so that they can get the international recognition that they deserve.