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The election of Mr. Chen Shui-bian as the next president of Taiwan was an event awaited by the Taiwanese people for the last four hundred years.  This unquestionable triumph for democracy and the peaceful transfer of power that it represents, however, are giving headaches to leaders all over the world, especially those in Washington and Beijing. 

How the One China Myth Started
The root cause of this headache is in a brilliant idea, conceived nearly thirty years ago, called the One China formula.  This formula states that "the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait believe that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China".  This convenient formula allowed both Washington and Beijing to gloss over the sensitive issue of Taiwan and get down to the realpolitik of containing Soviet expansionism. 

There is no doubt that this formula contributed greatly to the maintaince of global peace and prosperity in the 1970s and 1980s.  More recently, however, this brilliant framework is showing signs of strain. 

This strain comes from the fact that when the One China formula was put together in the 70s, the people of Taiwan were not consulted.  Or more precisely, the proponents of the One China policy knew that Taiwan could not raise objections to the formula at that time because it was ruled by Nationalist Chinese dictators who needed the One China formula themselves to legitimize their minority (15%) rule over the Taiwanese majority (85%).  Indeed, everything based on the One China formula was in fact based on the assumption that Taiwan would forever remain under the rule of Nationalist Chinese dictators. 

Since 1988, however, Taiwan has been moving rapidly toward democracy, and today it is raising strong objections to the One China formula by choosing Mr. Chen to be the next president.  Just as the United States is not part of Great Britain, the people of Taiwan feel that the immigrant society of Taiwan with its distinct history (see below) should not be confused with the traditional society of China. This objection was an unavoidable outcome once democratic forces had been unleashed in Taiwan. 

The Tabooed History of Taiwan
So what is Taiwan's history?  Although it is surrounded by some of the oldest societies in the world, including those of China, Korea and Japan, and had been visited by people from those societies, Taiwan itself has only about four hundred years of history.  In fact, the first country to really govern Taiwan was the Netherlands who established a major fort in 1624.  The record of that time shows that the Chinese population in Taiwan was a small fraction of the native aboriginal population, who of course, had discovered the island long before anyone else. 

The Dutch encouraged Chinese immigration to help develop the island, but their rule came to an end in 1661 when Koshinga, who led the remnants of the defeated Ming Dynasty forces, defeated them in what has been described as the first Asian victory over the European colonial powers. 

Koshinga's forces eventually surrendered to superior Ching Dynasty forces in 1683 and Taiwan entered the Ching Dynasty's territorial map the following year (Taiwan was not on the Ming or earlier dynasties' territorial maps).  Partly because of the Koshinga rebellion, however, the Ching viewed Taiwan more as a liability than an asset, and on occasions even prohibited Chinese from emigrating to the island. 

Such a view persisted as late as 1871, when Japanese fishermen were shipwrecked in Taiwan and murdered by local tribesmen.  At that time, the Ching told the Japanese authorities that Taiwan was "outside the realm of Chinese culture," implying that Japanese should seek out and punish the perpetrators themselves. 

People continued to move to Taiwan, however, as they fled natural and man-made disasters in China.  These pioneers, who contributed greatly to Taiwan's development, were very much on their own. 

The Ching realized the strategic importance of Taiwan following a war with France, and the island was "upgraded" to a province in 1887.  Although a serious administration was put in place to develop the island, in 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki to end the Sino-Japanese War.  In effect, Taiwan, the most marginal of Chinese provinces, was sacrificed to save the mainland. 

The Japanese who came to the island were determined to show to the world that Japan could manage colonialists just as well as the European powers.  In particular, and unlike European colonists who only dealt with local elite and viewed masses simply as laborers, the Japanese put in a comprehensive public education system for the masses.  By the 1940s, 81 % of school-age children were actually enrolled in schools; the highest rate attained anywhere in Asia outside Japan.  In addition, running water, gas, and electricity were put in place, and public health was improved dramatically.

In fifty years of Japanese rule, Taiwan was transformed from being the poorest and least sanitary province in China to the cleanest and richest, even though in some areas the Taiwanese were still considered second-class citizens.  The fact that Taiwan was an immigrant society where new values were accepted more readily than in traditional societies, such as in Korea, also made Japanese rule more workable. 

The Birth of the Taiwanese Identity
Just as the Taiwanese population was becoming fluent in Japanese, Taiwan was suddenly given back to China by the Allied powers in 1945.  The Chinese occupation forces that came to claim the island, however, considered the Taiwanese collaborators of the former enemy and treated them badly. 

In a striking parallel to the use of neutron bomb suggested by the Chinese Communist military following the March presidential election, the Nationalist Chinese military brutally murdered the best and brightest in Taiwan through a series of systematic atrocities starting on February 28, 1947.  The number of deaths is estimated to be as high as 30,000.  This event, known in Taiwan as the 2-2-8 incident, more than anything else, forced the people of Taiwan to realize that their destiny was forever separated from that of the Chinese. 

The subsequent Cold War rivalry between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese governments continued the neglect of Taiwanese concerns by both sides, but the inauguration of native-born Lee Teng-hui as the president of Taiwan in 1988 changed everything as he started the democratization of Taiwan.  With free elections, the original 85% of the population finally gained a political voice and forced the Nationalist Party to adopt a pro-Taiwan stance in order to stay in power. 

The Chinese Communists, who could never understand the far-reaching implications of a democratic Taiwan, continue to treat the island as the same old renegade province, thus alienating the people of Taiwan even further.  Indeed, the frequent suggestions by the Chinese Communists that Taiwan be flattened with bombing in order to start all over again, or that the Taiwanese population be annihilated with a neutron bomb, all reinforce the idea that China never considered the people of Taiwan to be worthy human beings. 

Put differently, it is the Chinese themselves who forced a different identity on the people of Taiwan.  When the Ching Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895, the Taiwanese were not consulted, and when Taiwan was made a part of (Nationalist) China in 1945, the Taiwanese were again not consulted.  Altogether, the people of Taiwan have lived a separate and often opposing life from those in China for over 100 years. 

The Taiwanese had to make the best of such changing circumstances, and to a large extent, succeeded in doing so by both hard work and developing their own identities.  The 2-2-8 incident, as well as the last fifty years of nonstop bashing by the Communists, reinforced that identity even further. 

Democratic Taiwan Speaks Out
Today, it is the expression of this identity through the legitimate democratic process that is shaking the myth of One China all over the world.  After all, when the Taiwanese side of the Strait is saying that they do not believe that Taiwan is part of China, the One China policy hasn't a leg to stand on. 

Facing this new situation in Taiwan, US Administration officials have been telling the Taiwanese not to provoke Beijing.  But it is difficult to censor a very open society of 21 million people and still have democracy. 

One could still expect people to be patient if they could believe that time is on their side.  But the recent White Papers by Beijing indicating that any lack of progress in reunification talks will invite military action suggests that patience will only invite war. The rapid buildup of economic and military capabilities by the Communist rulers of China has not given much sense of security to the people of Taiwan either. 

Others have suggested that Taiwan should become another Finland.  But the Finns won the respect of the Russians by withstanding the Winter War of 1939 with the support of the international community. 

Hilter's Peace or Real Peace?
Economic prosperity often leads to political moderation, and there is a hope among everyone that China will go in that direction.  The problem here is that the Chinese are taught none of the Taiwan history mentioned earlier. As such they cannot understand why the people of Taiwan have voted the way they have. 

This lack of understanding leads them to believe that the Taiwanese are just the running dogs of US and Japanese imperialists who are trying to prevent re-unification of China.  That belief, in turn, makes military action, including the already suggested use of a neutron bomb, a justifiable act. With its strong nationalist overtones, the legacy of this miseducation will not go away no matter how rich or democratic China might become. 

Furthermore, one must not forget that history is ripe with examples where prosperity encouraged aggression.  Hitler's success in pulling the German economy out of the Great Depression long before the US, the UK or France, for example, gave him enormous confidence. 

Maintaining peace is, of course, important.  And all of us have benefited greatly from the effort put in by successive US Administrations to maintain peace in the Pacific.  But even peace comes in two varieties, the real and the not so real. 

It has been said that Hitler told one of his close aides in the late 1930s that "Germany wants peace. Germany wants peace for the next five years." Such a peace, however, could not be a real peace because Hitler knew that by the end of the fifth year, Germany would have completed developing jet and rocket planes, aircraft carriers, the atomic bomb, and Vl and V2 missiles to conquer the world. 

Neville Chamberlain, a warm-hearted idealist who valued peace above all else, ended up giving Hitler additional preparation time, while Winston Churchill, who saw through Hitler's plan, stepped in before it was too late. 

Chairman Mao Knew the Cultural Difference
Of course nobody can be sure of the true nature of the leaders in Beijing until they take action.  But their attempt to influence the 1996 election through missile shootings and the suggestion about using neutron bombs on Taiwan following the March 2000 election, suggest that we may be dealing with person who do not share any of the values of civilized society. 

One saving grace may be the fact that the late Chairman Mao Tse-tung had indicated to Edgar Snow in the first edition of "Red Star over China" published in 1938 (i.e., before Taiwan was taken over by the Nationalists) that he enthusiastically supported the independence of Taiwan and Korea (from Japan).  The fact that he supported independence instead of reunification suggests that he understood the special cultural background of these two former territories of China. 

The above support was dropped in subsequent editions when Taiwan became the bastion of the renegade Nationalists.  The fact that the Nationalists have lost Taiwan in the recent election suggests that a new beginning may in fact be possible. 

Better Share Than Fight
All of the above suggests that the attainment of lasting peace in the region is a real challenge.  But once the tension between the two sides has been removed, those of us in Taiwan will be happy to commit both human and financial resources to help our cousins in China.  Just like the relationship between the US and the UK in modern times, we have a lot to learn from one another and even more to share with one another. 

In order not to make the same mistake Chamberlain made, however, we sincerely hope that US leaders will make it clear to Communist dictators that aggression of any kind will not be tolerated.  We would also like to ask people all around the world, and especially the people of China, to study the history of Taiwan with an open mind.  After all, without sharing of history, there can be no lasting peace.

Kwang-Ming Koo and concerned citizens of Taiwan

Fax: 886-2-2719-9000
e-mail: kw1015@ms14.hinet.net