Gravitas Plus: Explained: The China-Taiwan conflict

,Bloggers Note: Taipei as Capital on ONE CHINA would suit me just fine 

..

with transcript

if you've been following the news you

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couldn't have possibly missed the big

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story from taiwan u.s house speaker

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nancy pelosi visited the island china

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responded with military drills it fired

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ballistic missiles towards taiwan and

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repeatedly rehearsed the assault of

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taiwan when the world protested china

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turned around and said this is beijing's

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internal matter what is it

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what explains china's obsession with

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taiwan we'll discuss on this episode of

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gravitas plus hello i'm palki sharma

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and this is taiwan it is an island in

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the south china sea it is around 36 000

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square kilometers taiwan is roughly 161

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kilometers from mainland china the two

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are separated by the taiwan strait

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zoom out and you will see the

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philippines south korea brunei vietnam

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and japan all of them a stone's throw

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away from taiwan

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so why is it only china that is obsessed

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with this little island taiwan first

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appeared in chinese records during the

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zhou dynasty

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the emperor had sent an expedition and

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the explorer spotted taiwan this is

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china's side of the story in the 1600s

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taiwan became a dutch colony portuguese

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sailors called taiwan ila formosa

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meaning beautiful island the dutch rule

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lasted from 1624 to 1661. in 1683 taiwan

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came under china this was during the

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qing dynasty in the years that followed

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a lot of chinese migrated to taiwan they

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were mostly hakka chinese this chinese

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rule lasted until 1895 because in 1895

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china lost the first sino-japanese war

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taiwan had to be given away to japan

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decades later when japan lost the second

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world war taiwan was up for grabs again

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and china was on the winning side

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then it was called the republic of china

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or roc so the roc jumped at the idea of

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controlling taiwan it had the blessings

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of the u.s and britain but the republic

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of china or roc was a mess it was a

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military dictatorship

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chiang kai-shek was its leader he led a

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nationalist party called the komintang

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he ruled china with an iron fist under

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him there was unrest unhappiness and a

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civil war

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it was at this time that communist

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leader mao zedong became increasingly

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popular his red army fought chiang's

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party mao won in 1949 he established the

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people's republic of china or the prc

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chiang fled to taiwan

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the island had a subtropical climate

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abundant resources and advanced

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infrastructure built by the japanese

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also taiwan was free of communist

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influence and chiang did not move to

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taiwan alone along with him moved one

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and a half million people the roc's air

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force artifacts from the national palace

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museum the national central library the

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national central museum the beijing

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library fuel and ammunition radio

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stations boats clothes cars wood some

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774 boxes of gold basically chiang took

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all that he could take from china he

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established a government in exile in

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taiwan and then he declared martial law

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by the 1950s there were two chinas

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chiang's military dictatorship in taiwan

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called the roc or the republic of china

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and mao's communist china called the prc

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or the people's republic of china roc

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prc both claim to be the real china

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a battle for international recognition

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and legitimacy followed

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taiwan held the roc seat at the united

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nations western countries recognized

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taiwan as the only china

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in 1954 the first taiwan strait crisis

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broke out here's what happened chiang

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put thousands of troops on two taiwanese

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islands kin men and matsu mao china

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responded by bombing these islands four

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years later another crisis broke out

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mao's men again bombed kin-min and matsu

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they wanted to dislodge the roc troops

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chiang's troops

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amid this military tension taiwan's

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economy grew between 1960 and 1980

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taiwan saw an economic boom workers were

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exploited there was military rule

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exports grew this was the era of made in

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taiwan

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but soon taiwan's luck ran out you see

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the cold war was bubbling and mouse

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china became strategically important to

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the u.s

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and with american priorities it seemed

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like the world's priorities had changed

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too

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in 1971 the united nations chose to

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recognize beijing as the real china they

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dumped taiwan chiang kai-shek died in

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1975.

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one year later mao zedong died too then

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xiaoping became the leader of china he

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began opening china to the world over

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the next 10 years relations improved

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between china and taiwan

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people were allowed to visit families on

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either side trade across the strait also

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improved but as economic ties deepened

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so did cultural divisions they became

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worse

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people in taiwan began identifying as

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taiwanese not chinese

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a meeting was held in hong kong in 1992

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the two sides beijing and taipei agreed

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on one china

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but the problem is it was a verbal

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consensus and its interpretation varied

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first let me tell you the chinese

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communist party's version one china

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means the two sides of the strait belong

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to one china and this china is ruled by

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beijing and they'll work together to

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seek national reunification this is

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beijing's view but taiwan understood it

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differently also remember while china is

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ruled by the communist party taiwan is

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an actual democracy with multiple

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parties so in the year 2000 taiwan

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elected chen sui ban as its president

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now he was from the democratic people's

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party and this party openly backed

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taiwanese independence

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china was not prepared for the surprise

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so beijing passed a new law the

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anti-secession law

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it basically said that china could use

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force to keep taiwan in 2014 tens of

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thousands of students gathered in front

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of the taiwanese parliament they began

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protesting the ratification of a trade

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agreement with china the students cried

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we demand transparency because taiwan is

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a democracy

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this was the start of what's called the

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sunflower movement

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and this was the first open protest

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against china

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it was a new dawn for taiwan but china

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held on to its reunification demand in

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2013 xi jinping became president he

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revealed his china dream he wanted to

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revive china's historical glory

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she is pitched for taiwan hinges on the

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idea of one country two systems taiwan

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does not really buy china's promises it

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wants to remain a democracy and sai

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england's election is proof

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she campaigned on the idea of

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transparency she's from the democratic

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progressive party she is critical of

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china she was elected president in 2016

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and reelected in 2020 with the record

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8.2 million votes

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today taiwan is a self-ruled island it

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has its own flag its own anthem its own

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currency its own institutions taiwan's

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per capita gdp is more than 33 000

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it is a chip superpower the world's chip

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factory

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but taiwan's legal status is still

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unclear

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only 14 countries recognize taiwan china

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sees taiwan as a renegade province a

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breakaway province xi jinping says

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taiwan must be and will be reunited with

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china

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you could say the whole purpose of his

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regime is what he calls the great

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rejuvenation of the chinese nation the

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unification of taiwan and she wants this

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done by 2049

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because that is when the people's

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republic of china will celebrate its

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100th anniversary 2049 and she wants to

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do what mao could not

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what neither deng xiaoping nor who

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jintao could do

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he wants to be china's greatest leader

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and for that he must take taiwan under

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xi jinping china has forced countries to

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shun taiwan to stick to the one china

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policy to set up embassies in china not

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in taiwan companies have been asked to

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list taiwan

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as a part of china on their websites

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what is china's basis for claiming

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taiwan one history to the 1992 consensus

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but there's no real consensus on what

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the 1992 consensus really was

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also should taiwan's future be a victim

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of its past

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taiwan has moved on today it is a

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dynamic and pluralistic society it

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boasts of the world's first transgender

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cabinet minister the first country in

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the region to legalize same-sex marriage

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in 2021 taiwan was ranked the world's

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eighth most democratic country 62

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percent of the island's residents regard

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themselves as exclusively taiwanese only

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three percent consider themselves

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chinese

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in 1994 that number was 26 percent

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today taiwan has its own sense of

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identity one that could not be more

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different from authoritarian china xi

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jinping does not agree he says

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independence will only bring hardship

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but what about the taiwanese people what

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do they want

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5.2 percent want independence as soon as

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possible only 1.3 percent are in favor

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of reunification what about the rest of

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them they want to maintain status quo

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but look at china's military moves

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status quo

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is evidently not an option anymore

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[Music]

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you