Lake Manitoba – Beijing: Unit Sixteen – the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River
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02 Chapter CTW:Master Testpages CT 6/3/08 17:53 Page 61 2 Taipei – On the Fujian-Guangdong border – Beijing: Zhongnanhai – Canada: Lake Manitoba – Beijing: Unit Sixteen – The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River Taipei early everyone was excited about the result of the Taiwan general Nelection. On the face of it there had been a simple change of government. The Democratic Progressive Party, with 52 per cent of the vote, had defeated the Nationalist party (the KMT) and formed a government. In a country with a multi-party system there would have been nothing unusual about this; but the KMT had held power for several decades as the only legal party. After their defeat by the Communists in the civil war, the Nationalists had retreated to the island of Taiwan in 1949, swearing to ‘attack the Communists and recover the country’. It was like a struggle between two brothers, each claiming to be head of the family and responsible for maintaining its unity. When the Nationalists and their leader Chiang Kai Shek were in power they continually proclaimed their intention to counter-attack, though this was little more than sabre rattling. But Taiwan’s economic development surprised everyone, far surpassing that of Mainland China. The island maintained de facto independence and became increasingly different from the Mainland in politics, culture and standard of living; the majority considered themselves people of Taiwan rather than of China. So the independence movement developed in what was in effect a independent sovereign state—though not recognized as such by China and most other countries. The Nationalists wanted to rule the whole of China, not just one island, so at first tried to stamp out the independence movement, but eventually martial law was abolished and other political parties were allowed to exist. The Democratic Progress Party was founded, representing people who were loyal to Taiwan rather than China, and the independence movement flourished. The Party appealed to Taiwan patriotism and won the election. 1 02 Chapter CTW:Master Testpages CT 6/3/08 17:53 Page 62 The majority of the population had been born after 1949, and regarded mainland Chinese as foreigners. After half a century of separation, the only things that interested them about China were its resources and market potential. ‘Reunification of China’ was nothing but an empty Nationalist slogan. Taiwan was not very big, but life was good; so, what was the point of uniting with a neighbour who might swallow you up at any moment? Most Taiwanese feared that an open call for independence would provoke an armed response from the Mainland. If that happened there would be no question of independence: even survival was uncertain. Profit always comes first in a commercial and industrial society, so the Taiwanese were opposed to a vociferous demand for independence or any other extremist posturing. After all, what’s in a name? As long as separation from China was permanent… The Democratic Progressive Party took this lesson to heart, stopped talking about unification or independence and adopted instead a strategy of maintaining the status quo, expansion and normalization of trade, which was like dividing the family property between grown-up brothers. This sensible policy enjoyed electoral support. Even the Nationalist party, in deference to the views of the Taiwanese people, toned down its stubborn insistence on unity and now called now for ‘two Chinas’— the co-existence of China and Taiwan—but lost the election. The result had caused a sensation on the island. Only one man seemed indifferent. He ignored newspapers, television, radio and what people were saying in the streets, and took no part in any celebration. He was in a small wood in Yangming Public Park eating from a bunch of some sort of amber-coloured tropical fruit. The people who normally frequented the park—leisurely tourists, old men practising taijiquan exercises, young couples—had all gone to join in the excitement, otherwise they would have found the behaviour of the man rather strange. His eyes were fixed on the bunch of fruit he was eating. He seemed interested only in his reflection in a small oval mirror concealed among the fruit. With great concentration he kept touching his lips and arranging his hair, as if suffering from acute narcissism. In fact, he was adding twenty years to his age In a few minutes, the casual and pleasure-loving son of a wealthy Filipino family became a stiff and studious Japanese, with a small moustache and old-fashioned gold-rimmed spectacles. His leather backpack, turned inside out, was transformed into a smart brief case; his brightly coloured shirt, also turned inside out, had become sober and old-fashioned. He then walked away with a military step and waved 2.