Taiwan and the Century of Humiliation
Highlighting the history of Taiwan and exploring the cultural aspects that explain China's longing for Taiwan - A HAUTE CULTURE PRODUCTION
Taiwan and the Century of Humiliation
This week US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun were expected to meet at a major defense conference in Singapore, according to the Pentagon. It would have been the first meeting between the defense ministers, after Nancy Pelosi broke the “One-China Policy” in 2022, by meeting with the Taiwanese Government. China, as a reaction, cut off military-to-military communications and announced military exercises around Taiwan. After the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco, Biden and Jinping agreed to improve relations and resume military-to-military communication. How did a singular state visit to an island, smaller than most states, tint the relations of the two biggest economies to such an extent?
Let me begin with a “brief” introduction to Taiwan, which may explain the cultural significance of Taiwan for China.
Taiwan is an island located in the East China Sea with a population of 23.5 million (2020). Taiwan, which in its 400 years of history has been under the subjugation of foreign powers mostly, has been governed by itself since 1949, a privilege it hasn’t experienced since 1624. Until 1624 Taiwan was inhabited by Taiwanese aboriginals, whose languages were branches of the Austronesian tongue. The East-Dutch Company in 1624 began to colonize the South-West of Taiwan. Under Dutch Rule, the first systematic regime in Taiwan's history was built. Up to this point, there had been little Chinese immigration, but because the Dutch lacked the manpower to develop their young colony, they encouraged Chinese immigration to farm. This is the first large-scale Chinese Immigration to Taiwan. In 1626 a Spanish colony was established in North Taiwan, as the Spanish head of State Olivares wanted to expand Spanish colonial power. He became involved in the Thirty Year’s War and resumed the Dutch Conflict, which was halted by Phillip III. A consequence of Olivares’s expansionary foreign policy the Franco-Spanish War broke off in 1635. Spain’s budget for military missions abroad shrank, and Spain began decreasing its military capabilities in Taiwan in 1637. The Dutch achieved full control of Taiwan in 1642, after defeating Spain, who subsequently retreated from Taiwan. The Dutch started using Taiwan as an outpost to trade with China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, mostly buying silk and porcelain from China and exporting it to Japan or Europe. As for agriculture, sugarcane was mostly cultivated and sold as refined sugar to Japan or Batavia (nowadays Indonesia). Fort Zeelandia and Fort Provintia, which are nowadays in the administrative center of Tainan, were built, and the Christian Missionaries taught the natives to write in schools, which were also built by the Dutch.
Over to Mainland China, the pirate Zheng Zhi-Long, who was a powerful man back then, joined the government and became an official of the Ming Dynasty. This gave him the possibility to increase his fleet, soon rivaling the one from the Dutch, with whom he had multiple conflicts. The Ming Dynasty was the leading power in China and has been on the decline for multiple Reasons. For one its financial state was in bad shape, this was mostly because the already low taxes weren’t enforced properly. To add to that costly revolts and expensive wars with the Manchurians bled their treasury dry. It was those Manchurians who sealed the demise of the Ming Dynasty. The Invasions of Qing China forced the Ming Dynasty into the south of China. The Southern-Ming Dynasty then perished in 1662. Zheng Zhi-Long, the pirate from the Ming Dynasty, received the offer to surrender for a large sum of money and a high military position in Qing China. Zheng Zhi-Long accepts, but his son Zhen Cheng-Gong refuses to surrender, and assumes his father's position, with the Intent to recapture the Lost Territory of the Ming Dynasty. Zhen Cheng-Gong, just like his father, had a great fleet, winning most sea battles, but the Manchurians were significantly stronger on land. After several unsuccessful campaigns, he lays his sights on Taiwan and turns to fight the Dutch. He plans to use Taiwan as a base of operations to then someday re-establish the Ming Dynasty. In 1662, the same year the Ming Dynasty ultimately ceased to exist, he captured Fort Zeelandia and forced a Dutch retreat off the isle. This was the first time in history that Taiwan was in Chinese hands.
Although Zhen Cheng-Gong was a Ming Loyalist, Taiwan grew into a separate entity, called Kingdom Dongning. Zhen Cheng-Gong shortly died after the creation of his Kingdom and his Son Zheng Jing took over. Together with his official Chen Yong-Hua, he built the Chinese Confucian education system in Taiwan, the first Confucian temple was built, and Chinese code and classics were taught. Taiwan absorbed a lot of the Ming Culture. While Manchu clothing became popular in mainland China, people in Taiwan still dressed Han Chinese as it was fashioned during the Ming Dynasty. Qing China, aware of the political and cultural change in Taiwan began to fight Anti-Qing sentiment. “The Great Clearance” relocated Han Chinese from the eastern coast to ensure that the Ming Loyalists in Taiwan, who were Han Chinese as well, had no network in mainland China. The forcefully enforced relocation of course met great resistance in the population, which led to multiple immigration waves to the Kingdom of Dongning. A trade war between Qing China and Dongning followed and sanctions against Taiwan’s business overseas led to high losses of income. The Zheng regime was forced to build deeper ties with external partners. Because of the strategic position of Taiwan, it also became the hotspot for smuggling goods into and out of Qing China, an activity that turned out to be highly profitable. As for Cultivation, the sugar industry was still thriving, and new agricultural technology was brought by immigrants. military wise Zhen Jing started importing Japanese and Western armories and weapons. The British were invited to train the artillery. The war against Qing China still wasn’t going anywhere, the results on the battlefield were disappointing, and bilateral peace agreements never amounted to anything. Realizing that the dream of a resurrection of the Ming Dynasty was impossible Zhen Jing became very depressed and he transferred power over to his oldest and very promising son Zhen Khezang in 1679. Two Years later he was assassinated, at age 19, by his uncle Zheng Cong in the Tungning Coup. The 12-year-old Zheng Keshuang became king, and unsurprisingly he was no capable leader, the Kingdom was on the decline, and in 1683 Qing China launched a naval campaign, which led to the conquer of Taiwan. Shi Lang, the admiral who commandeered the naval campaign, was previously a Ming Loyalist and served as a general under Zheng Chenggong. He switched sides when a fallout between him and Zheng Chenggong led to his whole family being executed. He also proposed the idea to absorb Taiwan’s territory into China. For the first time, China and Taiwan were united under one government.
Before the unification, China never considered Taiwan as Chinese. Qing China acknowledged that Taiwan's strategic position, parting the East China Sea and South China Sea, was a security risk. The decision, therefore, had a geopolitical motive, and the disregard for Taiwan was ratified when it was added to the Fujian Province. Significant Chinese development in Taiwan did not happen, until 1885 when Taiwan finally got its province. At the beginning of Qing China's rule of Taiwan, people were restricted from migrating to the isle and people that did migrate weren’t allowed to take their family with them. As a result, most of the inhabitants of Taiwan were male, which may have contributed to the societal instability at that time. Only after Foreign Powers started to show significant interest in Taiwan the Chinese started to see Taiwan as an extension of the mainland. Through the 19th century, foreign powers started to invade the mainland and Taiwan. This period is known as the beginning of “The Century of Humiliation”. The Century of Humiliation holds great cultural significance in China and to this day still one of the main motives for Chinese Foreign Policy. Before the Century of Humiliation, Qing China was at its greatest extent and during this Century China got ransacked and cut into pieces. In 1858 China signed a Treaty with Great Britain that opened the Harbors and allowed Christian Missionaries to return to Taiwan. The development of the northern Harbors through British trade led to an economic and later political shift from the south to the north. As China lost the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Taiwan became Japan's first overseas colony. Japan wanted Taiwan to become a model colony, so it heavily invested in Taiwan’s industrial infrastructure. Because Taiwan was seen as an extension of the homeland, big investments flowed into healthcare, and improvement of the electric grid and Education was made mandatory. Japanese public schools were built, and the upper class even sent their offspring to Japan for higher education. After the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese started the Kominka Movement. This Movement aimed to ensure that the colony stayed loyal to the Japanese emperor. The people of Taiwan were forced to speak Japanese, dress Japanese, and live in Japanese-style housing. During the war, Taiwan was forced to imitate Japan in every way, even in religion. The majority of Taiwan's population was still Han Chinese, and although there was the alternative of Japanese public schools most preferred to send their children to secret, traditional Chinese schools. After World War II ended Taiwan became part of the Republic of China. Officially, the end of the Second World War marks the end of the Century of Humiliation. The war had left Taiwan's industry severely damaged, because of allied bombings. The most impactful change though was the change of government in 1949. After the Republic of China lost the civil war against Communist China, they retreated to Taiwan intending to regain control over mainland China in the future.
The so-called “Kuomintang” (short “KMT”) was the leading party in the Republic of China, which assumed power in Taiwan. This government change led to dissatisfaction among the Taiwanese, who were used to being governed by the more developed Japanese. Taiwan entered a 38-year-long period of martial law, as KMT introduced a One-Party political system. The Kuomintang officials were known to be corrupt and to favor the mainland Chinese over the Taiwanese. Many dissidents were accused of being communist agents and were prosecuted. Out of the political “Tang Wai” movement, which aimed to end the One-Party System, the “Democratic Progressive Party” (short “DPP”) was created. Taiwan nowadays is a Two-Party System with the DPP and the KMT being the two parties. While the KMT favors a One-China Policy (Major of Taipei Ko Wen-je:” The two sides of the [Taiwan] Strait are one family”), the DPP wants Taiwan to stay independent (This may explain why the People's Republic of China was reluctant to acknowledge the win of the DPP-affiliated president Lai Ching-Te, recently). The People’s Republic of China Foreign Ministry said in a statement made by a spokesperson, that the election ”will not change the basic fact that Taiwan is part of China and there is only one China in the world,”.
The relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) has a very interesting dynamic: The People’s Republic of China AND the Republic of China claim each other, as their rightful territory. Between 1949 and the 1970s the PRC tried to “liberate” Taiwan multiple times. Both states wanted to reunite forcefully, but because of the strait, neither could set foot on the other territory. After North Korea attacked South Korea on June 25th, 1950, the US revised its Pacific defense policy and deployed the US. 7th Fleet to the area of the Pacific to ensure that another communist attack couldn’t happen again. From the 1960s on the PRC gradually changed policy and endorsed a peaceful reunification. As a result, the 7th fleet was slowly redeployed to other areas. “In the 1960's, the U.S. Seventh Fleet's presence in the Taiwan Strait was reduced to a two-destroyer patrol which was terminated in the late 1960’s.”
The goal of peaceful reunification meant that both countries were fighting each other with economical means, or diplomatically. While in the 50s and 60s, the Taiwanese government was filled with mainlanders the political goal was to unify Taiwan and the mainland under the ROC flag, but in the 70s the representation of islanders in the government rose, and with it, the Taiwan Independence Movement began to take momentum. After the ROC was kicked out of the United Nations and replaced by the PRC in October 1971, most Taiwanese Politicians realized that a reunification with the ROC in charge was too unrealistic; in 1991 the Republic of China forswore its goal of recovering the mainland. In December 1978 then the US formally established relations with the PRC, acknowledging that the PRC is the only China (known as the “One-China-Policy”). One Year later the ROC-US Defense Contract was voided. This Decade marked the beginning of the Taiwanese struggle for International Recognition. Throughout the post-WWII period, the United States has always been the sole guarantor of Taiwan, but in the 1970s the United States began to slip into the role of impartially, trying to maintain the status quo and establish great relations with both Chinas. While the PRC claimed that this was “solely a domestic policy issue” and wanted the US to abstain from involvement, the ROC, needing US protection to stay independent from the mainland, said the opposite.
The former premier (Head of State) of the PRC Chou En-Lai said in 1971: "We are absolutely opposed to the so-called Taiwan Independence Movement because the people in Taiwan are Chinese....the Taiwan Independence Movement is not a native movement in itself. It is a special movement which has behind it the special manipulation from foreign forces. One of their leaders is Peng Ming-min, who was originally a student at Harvard, then went back to Taiwan to become a professor, and now is also back in the United States. There are also some elements of them in Japan. They are supported by the Japanese government."
This quote encaptures the sentiment most mainlanders have and the stigma that the PRC uses to justify its Taiwan policy. This sentiment is the result of the “Century of Humiliation”, a period, which I covered very shortly (see above). To go into further detail on the Century of Humiliation would probably be too much for this newsletter episode but the conclusion China came to was that for
1. Human History is driven by competition among groups of people. In the modern times, these groups of people usually are nations.
2. The well-being of a nation is tied to its ability to compete in the international arena; it is not possible to opt out and not participate in the competition.
These two axioms are the foundation of modern Chinese diplomacy and from it, almost every policy of China can be derived. Furthermore, Taiwan is one of the only substantial territories that haven’t returned to the motherland after the Century of Humiliation. All this border warfare and claims that China has on the territory of multiple nations is because it got lost during the Century of Humiliation and must be recovered.
Regarding the motive of the US, the United States changed its policy in the 70s because it thought the PRC was becoming a counterweight against the Soviets in the communist bloc.
“It has become conventional wisdom that the U.S.-China rapprochement was a result (from the Chinese side) of Beijing’s fear of the Soviet Union. Specifically, the Warsaw Pact occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the border confrontation which developed rapidly in the months after the clashes at Zhen Bao Island on the Ussuri River in March 1969, are seen as exacerbating Chinese fears of Soviet attack. These fears had emerged during the Cultural Revolution when Moscow began insinuating that it might intervene in China in support of the anti-Maoist, " healthy forces." It was in hopes of deterring possible Soviet invasion, surgical strike, or intervention – so the argument runs-that Beijing wanted to improve relations with Washington” John Graver wrote in his article “Chinese Foreign Policy in1970: The Tilt towards the Soviet Union”.
Although the US gave concessions to the PRC, it still supported Taiwan, especially economically. As a result, the Taiwanese were consistently one of the best performers in the Asian market since the 50s. Because of a boom in population, the land per capita was cut in half, and sugar as their main export product was replaced by textiles. “The United States is Taiwan's principal trading partner. Exports to that country were about US$860 million in 1971 compared with imports of US$590 million.” Says the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The 70s were also the beginning of the Semiconductor industry, for which Taiwan is famous nowadays. But the Semiconductor industry will be covered in another episode of the newsletter, as it (again) would be too much for this already very long email essay. The Situation between both Chinas then cooled off till the 90s. In November of 1987, the Republic of China allowed their citizens to visit their relatives in mainland China. In response, the PRC then loosened restrictions on investments and travel to Taiwan. In April 1993 the Koo-wang-Talks were held in Singapore and although both States couldn’t come to a bilateral agreement, it was a breakthrough in Chinese-Chinese Diplomacy as it was the first time both official delegations met in person.
1995 however marked the beginning of the PRC-ROC relationship as we know it today. It started on March 8th, 1995, when the Clinton administration granted a US-visa to the President of Taiwan to visit Cornell University. The PRC was convinced that Lee was pursuing Taiwanese Independence, and the US was getting involved. The People's Republic of China responded with two military exercises around Taiwan in August and November of 1995.
The Reaction China showed after Nancy Pelosi’s State visit to Taiwan was nothing out of the ordinary, as these State visits (no matter if ROC visits to the US or vice versa) show that Taiwan is behaving and is getting treated like a recognized, and therefore, legitimized State. In general, since 1995 the People’s Liberation Army has been conducting military drills around Taiwan as punishment for Taiwan’s strive for independence, which breaks the One-China Policy that has been internationally acknowledged since 1982.