Sean Glasson Abstract Taiwan Has Always Had a Unique Position in the Far East, Both in Terms of Geography and the National Ident

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN’S NATIONAL MOVEMENT 1 Sean Glasson Abstract Taiwan has always had a unique position in the Far East, both in terms of geography and the national identity and political institutions that are not only critical for citizens of Taiwan, who make their home on the island, but are also critical to the major powers in East Asia, such as the United States, China, and Japan. Besides the influences of foreign policy on the Taiwanese evolution, the various effects of the globalization that have swept the world in the last several decades have had an even more dramatic effect on Taiwan by comparison, as the island has rushed to embrace free trade and social media both as economic boons and as tools for securing its place as a functioning polity that is nominally part of another but practically a state unto itself. The events of the past twenty years and the global trends that have accompanied them have transformed the thinking of Taiwan’s population as they consider what course they should take going forward. This paper seeks to look at how that change came to be, and how it has already affected the policies and actions of both Taiwan and its neighbors Introduction Of the many things that help to define a nation, none is more important than the shared characteristics that bind one’s people together. All other things, from politics and economics to trends and pop culture, are essential components as well, but are mainly built on this base. While no nations in the world share the exact same national identity, most of them share some common features with others, usually as a result of displacement, assimilation, or colonial and historic THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN’S NATIONAL MOVEMENT 2 legacies. These identities tend to be built on several common themes, consisting of geography, history and culture, ethnicity, and expressed ideals. Of these themes, some can be more or less significant than others, depending on the nation in question, and they are all important to keep in mind as we look at the subject of this paper. Taiwan is one of the youngest states that exist in the world today, both in the time of its de facto independence and in terms of national identity. The island is also one of the most important geographic features of East Asia. Taiwan’s geographical position makes it key to Chinese ambitions to dominate the South China Sea and the efforts of the United States and others to contain China. The tensions over Taiwan have threatened to become open conflict several times over the last few decades, but fears about provoking a large, destructive war have helped to prevent any of these incidents from reaching the breaking point. Both China and The United States have made Taiwan a key piece of their foreign policy in Asia, with the Taiwanese keeping the latter close while warily engaging with the former. In the meantime, Taiwan has also made an effort to establish ties with other nations, with an emphasis on its neighbors in east Asia. These relationships are key to understanding the character of Taiwan’s national identity, even as it faces losing its de facto nationhood in the meantime. Another important thing to keep in mind when studying Taiwan is the unique and diverse groups that make up its population. Most foreigners think of the people of Taiwan as Han Chinese, and while the vast majority of the population is, there is a distinction made between the several different groups within the Han. There are also aboriginal Taiwanese who have lived on the island for far longer than the ethnic Chinese have. These ethnic groups have had the greatest impacts on Taiwanese culture, especially in how the groups have remained distinct and THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN’S NATIONAL MOVEMENT 3 intertwined at the same time, which is one of the most significant parts of the Taiwanese national identity. A final key piece of Taiwan’s national identity to consider is the impact of the digital revolution on the people living on the island, and the emphasis Taiwan has put on establishing itself not only as a thriving economy with de facto independence but also as one of the global leaders in the world of computing and information technology. This sense of innovation and modernity colors all other aspects of what makes up the national character of Taiwan, and is very important to consider when looking at Taiwan in the world today. Historic Overview: European Colonists to Qing Occupation The island of Taiwan, officially known as Formosa, has had human settlements since over five thousand years ago, long before the Han Chinese began to settle there. The native people are culturally linked to many of the indigenous groups belonging to the Polynesian people, who stretch from Hawaii to Madagascar. While the island was known to the people of China and their neighbors for centuries, there was never an organized effort to claim Formosa. Taiwan’s aboriginals lived with relatively little contact with the rest of the world until the sixteenth century, when Dutch explorers established a trading post on the island, in order to have a base near China and Japan. Only a few decades later, the Spanish joined them, establishing separate bases in the north of the island. During this time, neither party expressed a major interest in Taiwan itself. The native people were cautious towards the Europeans, and would often ally themselves with either the Dutch or Spanish to fight other tribes on the island. The major shift occurred in the early seventeenth century, when the Han Chinese began settling in large numbers on Taiwan. This was due to the Manchu invasion that would end the Ming Dynasty and displace it with the Qing Dynasty. The Chinese settlers came from the Fujian THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN’S NATIONAL MOVEMENT 4 province in the south, among them the “founder” of Chinese Taiwan, known as Koxinga in Western literature (Jacobs, 2014). Born to a Han Chinese father and a Japanese mother in Nagasaki, he lived there until age seven, which is when his father moved him to the Ming court at Fujian. He would go on to pass the service exams common to Chinese government and serve in the government of several Ming emperors during the Manchu invasions. After the fall of Fujian, he fled to Taiwan, where he organized the Han settlers and seized control of the island from the European colonists. Han Chinese rule did not last long. Koxinga was an avowed loyalist of the old Ming dynasty, and his family continued that policy after his death. The Qing were quick to organize an expedition to Taiwan, and assumed control of the island in 1683. While this was the beginning of Taiwan’s role as an appendage to the Chinese mainland, Qing rule was not strictly Chinese in two ways: firstly, the government was dominated by Manchus, who are distinct from Han Chinese; and secondly, that the Qing never exercised control over the entire island, and instead preferred to focus on the Chinese settlements on the coast while leaving the highlands to the aboriginal Taiwanese people (Jacobs 2014). Those circumstances would continue well into the nineteenth century. Japanese Occupation and the Nationalist Arrival Qing rule over Taiwan lasted for two centuries, during which the island became a key feature of Chinese trade with foreign traders from the West. This occurred without any real effort towards development on the part of the Qing government, nor was there any major investment in the assimilation of the aboriginal tribes. The Japanese seized Taiwan after the First Sino- Japanese War ended in 1895 (Chen and Hwang, 2015). In the first twenty years of the THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN’S NATIONAL MOVEMENT 5 occupation, the colonial rulers focused just on the economic development of the island, modernizing the industry and the transportation systems on the island (Jacobs, 2014). While unrest and rebellion were suppressed ruthlessly, the main goal of the colonial government and military was to maintain order, which included treating the natives as foreigners. This system endured until the First World War. After WWI, the Japanese began a system of cultural suppression and assimilation on Taiwan, banning the native languages and customs while introducing Japanese as the official language for education, government, and public life (He, 2014). This program accelerated during the invasion of China and the Second World War, and endured until the end of the Japanese Empire in 1945. Though the Chinese were given administrative control of Taiwan after the Japanese defeat, peace did not last long. The Chinese Civil War, put on hold so that the Japanese could be fought by a united Chinese front, resumed quickly after the end of the Second World War. During this renewed conflict the United States would provide little aid to the forces of Chiang Kai-shek, who was considered a better alternative than the pro-Soviet forces under Mao Tse- tung. The Chinese Communists would go on to defeat Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang forces. They fled to Taiwan and established a dictatorship while still claiming to be the legitimate government of Taiwan. It was the latter action that resulted in the status of Taiwan today, and will be crucial to understand when looking at modern Taiwan’s policy towards the rest of the world. The Kuomintang: Dictatorship and Democracy The Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek ruled Taiwan for half a century, and spent most of that time actively oppressing the island’s population, both Chinese and aboriginal. After the end of the Civil War, Chiang imposed martial law on Taiwan, which wouldn’t be lifted until 1987, THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN’S NATIONAL MOVEMENT 6 well after his death.

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