The Taiwan question: from one Cold War to another

The issue of Taiwan, which labels itself officially the Republic of China, is a highly complex one in the history of modern geopolitics. Yet within soundbites and headlines on international news media, it is one that is framed in a highly simplified manner. Corresponding to the rise of the Peoples Republic of China, it is an issue often presented as a simple ‘David and Goliath’ matter in Western media, which retains a vested interest in the region.

Regardless, Western media’s global reach due to the ubiquitous spread of the English language means that the aforementioned simplified framing of the issue is the one that persists in public consciousness in most parts of the world, no matter what their countries’ official policies reflect. The China Global Television Network, the nation’s state-run foreign language news broadcaster, has recently released a short documentary to highlight its own stance and history on the multifaceted issue. Featuring interviews from the likes of Henry Kissinger and other senior US figures in addition to Chinese experts, the documentary should provide food for thought as the South China Seas heat up in this century’s first big great power conflict.

Provocatively, the documentary has been titled ‘Taiwan: A US Pawn in Containing China’. The content, however, focuses heavily on the history of the two straits after World War II, as the Communist regime in Beijing established formal ties with the United States.

In many ways, Washington’s policy on Taiwan is a vestige of the Cold War and the heightened anxieties against Communism that prevailed among American leaders and public. To understand China’s position on Taiwan, it is crucial to delve into the historical context. The Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) between the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) resulted in the establishment of two separate governments. As the conflict worked towards its climax, the KMT retreated to Taiwan, while the CCP established the Peoples Republic on the mainland.

From Beijing’s perspective, Taiwan has always been an integral part of Chinese territory, and the CCP views the island's government as a remnant of the old order it strived again. It’s stance, thus, is based on a historical urge to reunify the nation and reflects its adherence to the One-China policy. This policy asserts that there is only one China, and both Taiwan and the mainland are part of that single Chinese nation.

Beijing also believes that Taiwan is bound by an understanding known as the 1992 Consensus, reached between the CCP and Taiwan’s then KMT government. But both sides differ on the content of this consensus. For China, it reflects an agreement that the two sides of the strait belong to one China and would work together to seek national reunification. The KMT, however, sees the ROC as the ‘one-China’ and Taiwan’s KMT-drafted constitution recognises China, Mongolia, Taiwan, Tibet, and the South China Sea as part of the ROC. Interestingly, the KMT does not support Taiwan’s independence and has consistently called for closer ties with Beijing.

The Taiwan question, at the very least then, reflects a matter that is bilateral between Beijing and the ROC, if one remains cynical over it being an ‘internal’ one. The strange factor is the self-involvement of the US in this geopolitical puzzle, which even cynics must admit is fuelled not by any principled stance but an urge to counter and contain China’s influence through any and all means necessary.

Western media frames the question of Taiwan’s non-recognition by most nations, including those in the Western bloc, as the result of China’s coercion – that nations that choose to have ties with Beijing must recognise one China. As the documentary highlights, however, the US recognised one China in its declarations even before the CCP emerged supreme over the mainland.

The first watershed moment, in the history of the Cold War and US-China ties, was the Korean War. An era that saw McCarthyism take hold in the US made it untenable for Washington to recognise the authority of a Communist regime in China. And so began the arms sales.

When Washington established formal relations with Beijing in 1979, it severed ties and its mutual defence treaty with the ROC. For its own strategic purposes, however, it has continued a robust unofficial relationship with Taiwan, going so far as to supply it with crucial defence systems like F-16 fighter jets. If both China and Taiwan continue to hold some notion of ‘One China’, whose purpose does such a contradictory policy serve?