Why in news?

• On January 13, Taiwan will vote to elect its next President and legislature.
• With Taiwan's complicated ties to China and rising global tensions, the election result could be a big deal for the island.
  • China, despite never ruling Taiwan, insists it's theirs and has not ruled out using force to claim it, home to 24 million people.

What’s in today’s article?

• China – Taiwan Relation
• News Summary

Geographical location of Taiwan:

• 
• Taiwan is located north of the Philippines and the South China Sea.
• It is about 180 km off the south-eastern coast of China.
• It is separated from the mainland by the Taiwan Strait.

China – Taiwan Dispute

• Background
  • The island seems to have first appeared in Chinese records in AD239, when an emperor sent an expeditionary force to explore the area.
    • This evidence is used by Beijing to back its territorial claim.
  • After a relatively brief spell as a Dutch colony (1624-1661), Taiwan was administered by China's Qing dynasty from 1683 to 1895.
  • In 1895, Japan won the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Qing government had to cede Taiwan to Japan.
  • After World War Two, Japan surrendered and relinquished control of territory.
• Civil War
  • When Japan surrendered, The Chinese Nationalist Party (also known as the Kuomintang, KMT) began ruling Taiwan with the consent of its allies, the US and UK.
    • Chiang Kai-shek was the ruler of this party.
  • However, almost immediately following Japan’s surrender, the Chinese Civil War broke out between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC).
  • Chiang and the remnants of his Kuomintang government fled to Taiwan in1949.
• Disagreement and confusion about Taiwan
  • China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province which it has vowed to retake, by force if necessary.
    • China has repeatedly insisted that Taiwan should be called Chinese Taipei, in efforts to prevent international recognition of Taiwan as a country.
  • But Taiwan's leaders argue that it is a sovereign state. Taiwan continues to participate in international events and dialogues separately.
  • It has its own constitution, democratically-elected leaders, and about 300,000 active troops in its armed forces.

Who recognises Taiwan?

• Initially, Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China (ROC) government held China's seat on the United Nations Security Council.
  • In the Cold War, the Taiwanese government in Taipei emerged as a crucial ally of the United States and took over China’s seat on the UN Security Council.
• However, all that changed in 1979 when the US, as part of its efforts to normalise ties with mainland China, moved its recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
  • Officially, the US recognises Beijing’s belief that Taiwan is a part of China under the ‘one China’ theory.
  • However, it maintains close connections with Taiwan.
• Since then, the number of countries that recognise the ROC government diplomatically has fallen drastically to about 15.

India-Taiwan relations

• India does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Like most countries, it maintains commercial ties with Taiwan.
• In 1995, New Delhi set up the India-Taipei Association (ITA) in Taipei to promote interactions between the two sides.
  • The aim of ITA was to facilitate business, tourism, and cultural exchanges.
  • ITA has also been authorized to provide all consular and passport services.
• In the same year, Taiwan too established the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in Delhi.

News Summary: China – Taiwan Relation

Taiwan’s transition to democracy

• From 1949 to 1996, Kai-shek’s KMT ruled Taiwan under a de facto dictatorship but in 1996, the country held its first direct presidential election.
• Since then, it has undergone three peaceful transfers of power in 2000, 2008, and 2016.
• Taiwan’s current President, Tsai Ing-wen, made history in 2016 by becoming the first woman to be elected to the top office.
  • She is constitutionally barred from running again.

China – Taiwan Relation: Current Status

• Commercial ties
  • Despite the tensions, China is Taiwan’s largest commercial partner. A large number of Taiwanese have familial and commercial ties across the strait.
• Concerns of Beijing remain
  • Beijing remained concerned by different demographic factors.
  • Over 60% of the island’s population now identifies exclusively as Taiwanese, with 30% identifying as both Taiwanese and Chinese, and only 2.5 % as Chinese.
  • For the first time ever, all of the presidential contenders are native Taiwanese, which means their ancestors immigrated to the island nation prior to the Chinese Civil War.