HISTORY OF THE TAIWAN ISSUE

　　Taiwan Is an Inseparable Part

　　of Chinese Territory

　　Taiwan has a written history which can be traced back to the third century. In 230 A.D., during the Three Kingdoms period, the King of Wu, Sun Quan, dispatched an army of 10,000 men to “Yizhou” (Taiwan), which was recorded by Shen Ying of Wu in Coastal Waters – the world’s earliest written record of Taiwan. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Taiwan was known as “Liuqiu,” and armies were dispatched to the island on three separate occasions during the Sui Dynasty. Beginning in 610 A.D., residents along the coast of mainland China began to migrate to the Penghu Islands. In the middle of the twelfth century, the Southern Song Dynasty placed the Penghu Islands under the jurisdiction of Jinjiang County, Quanzhou, Fujian, and dispatched troops to defend them. The Yuan Dynasty established an Inspection Division on the Penghu Islands and exercised effective control over them. During the Song Dynasty, Han Chinese began to migrate to Taiwan and develop land for farming. During the Ming Dynasty greater numbers of mainland coastal inhabitants moved to Taiwan and the island became increasingly developed. In the latter half of the sixteenth century, the Ming Dynasty revived the Penghu Inspection Division and increased the number of troops stationed there to defend it. Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, the local government in Fujian and the Zheng Zhilong group organized for migrants to move to Taiwan and cultivate the land on a greater scale. In 1622, Dutch colonists seized the southern part of Taiwan. Spanish colonists then arrived in 1624 and seized the northern part of Taiwan, only to be replaced by the Dutch in 1642. In 1661, Zheng Chenggong commanded his army to make their way to Taiwan, drove the Dutch colonists from the island, and recaptured it. In 1683, the Qing government sent troops to attack and seize the Penghu Islands, which resulted in the surrender of the Zheng Shi group and national unification. In 1684, the Qing government established a Taiwan government subordinate to Fujian Province and established a military force in Taiwan to patrol Taiwan and Xiamen which had jurisdiction over the defensive forces of both Taiwan and Xiamen. Afterwards, mainland coastal inhabitants moved to Taiwan in great numbers and Taiwan entered a new historical period. By 1811, Taiwan’s population exceeded 1.9 million. In 1874, due to the slaughter of boat people from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan annexed the islands and dispatched troops to Taiwan. The Qing government recruited migrants from the mainland to further open up and develop Taiwan and shore up coastal defenses, and at the same time, instructed the governor of Fujian to station troops on Taiwan every year from winter to spring. During the Sino-French War of 1884 and 1885, the Taiwan army, led by Liu Mingchuan of the Fujian Inspection Division, fought off the French forces. On October 12, 1885, the Qing government declared the establishment of Taiwan province, making Taiwan China’s twentieth province. The first governor of Taiwan, Liu Mingchuan, actively promoted self-reliance in the new government and made Taiwan one of China’s most advanced provinces at that time.

　　In 1894, Japan initiated the Sino-Japanese War in which the Qing government were defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, surrendering China’s sovereign rights under humiliating terms, including ceding Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to the Japanese. In the early stages of Japanese occupation, the people of Taiwan continued their arm struggle for almost 20 years and afterwards launched an unarmed national resistance movement. In 1937, Japan began its full war of aggression against China, and intensified its efforts to plunder Taiwan’s resources. At the same time, it coercively carried out the Kominka Movement, which sought to eliminate the Taiwanese people’s sense of identity with the Chinese. However, this was met with an intense reaction and strong resistance from the Taiwanese people. The Japanese illegally occupied Taiwan for 50 years. During that time, 650,000 Taiwanese people were murdered. The history of our Taiwanese compatriots’ resistance against the rule of Japanese colonists illuminates the great spirit of the Chinese nation in withstanding foreign aggression.

　　In December 1941, the Pacific War broke out. On December 9, the Chinese government issued a declaration of war against Japan, which solemnly announced the Chinese government’s intention to recover Taiwan and the Penghu Islands. On December 1, 1943, China, the United States and Britain signed the Cairo Declaration which clearly specified “It is [our] purpose… that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa [Taiwan], and the Pescadores [Penghu Islands], shall be restored to the Republic of China.” On July 26, 1945, China, the United States and Britain signed the Potsdam Proclamation, which was later signed by the Soviet Union. The Potsdam Proclamation affirmed that “the conditions of the Cairo Declaration must be implemented.” On August 15, 1945, the Japanese government announced its unconditional surrender, and on October 25, a ceremony was held in Taiwan attended by the allied nations involved in the Chinese theatre of war to formally accept Japan’s surrender. The Chinese official who accepted Japan’s surrender on behalf of the Chinese government made the following declaration: “From this day forth, the islands of Taiwan and Penghu are once again official territories of China, and all their land, people, and government affairs come under Chinese sovereignty.” To commemorate Taiwan’s restoration, October 25 was named Taiwan’s Restoration Day.

　　History of the Taiwan Issue

　　After the Second World War, Taiwan returned to China not only in law but in fact. The emergence of the Taiwan issue was not only due to the anti-popular civil war initiated by the Kuomintang but, more importantly, the interference of foreign powers.

　　The Taiwan Issue and the Civil War Initiated by the Kuomintang

　　During China’s War of Resistance against Japan, under the impetus of the Communist Party of China and other patriotic forces, the Chinese Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China established the anti-Japanese national united front to fight Japanese imperialist aggression. After they had achieved victory in the War of Resistance against Japan, the two parties continued their cooperation and worked together for the great cause of rejuvenating China. However, the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-Shek, enlisted the support of the US and, with complete disregard for the people of China who yearned for peace and who had an intense desire to establish an independent, democratic, rich and powerful new China, tore up the October 10th Agreement signed by both parties and began the nationwide anti-popular civil war. The Chinese people were left with no option but to engage, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, in the People’s Liberation War, which lasted for over three years, and due to the Kuomintang’s retroaction at that time, which had already been severely renounced by the people of the entire country, the Chinese people finally overthrew the government of the Republic of China in Nanjing. On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China was established, and the government of the PRC became China’s sole legal government, with members of the Kuomintang government and army fleeing to Taiwan. Supported by the US government at that time, this resulted in a state of cross-Straits isolation.

　　US Government’s Responsibility for the Taiwan Issue

　　After the Second World War, as the two great camps of East and West faced off, based on its global strategy and in order to protect its own interests, the US government spared no effort in supporting the Kuomintang in the civil war, providing money, guns and personnel in an attempt to thwart the Chinese people’s revolution. Despite this, in the end, the US government was unable to achieve the objective it had hoped for. Neither the White Paper on United States’ Relations with China issued by the US State Department in 1949 nor the letter from Secretary of State Dean Acheson to President Truman could help but acknowledge this fact. In his letter to the President, Acheson wrote, “The unfortunate but inescapable fact is that the ominous result of the civil war in China was beyond the control of the government of the United States. Nothing that this country did or could have done within the reasonable limits of its capabilities could have changed that result; nothing that was left undone by this country has contributed to it. It was the product of internal Chinese forces, forces which this country tried to influence but could not.”

　　Following the birth of the People’s Republic of China, the US government could have extricated itself from the quagmire of the Chinese civil war. It did not do so however. Instead, it adopted isolationist and containment policies against New China and, following the outbreak of the Korean War, it undertook armed intervention in China’s domestic affairs—cross-Straits relations. On June 27, 1950, US President Truman issued a statement announcing, “I have already ordered the 7th Fleet to prevent any attack on Taiwan.” The US 7th Fleet then entered the Taiwan Straits, while the 12th Air Force positioned itself on Taiwan. In December 1954, the US signed the Joint Defense Treaty with the Taiwan authorities, thereby placing the Chinese province of Taiwan under US protection. The US government persisted with their misguided policies which meddled in China’s domestic affairs, which created a tense, long-term stand off in the Taiwan Straits. Since then, the Taiwan issue has become a major point of contention between the US and China.

　　In order to ease the tense situation in the Taiwan Straits and in an attempt to find a channel through which the US and China could resolve their dispute, the Chinese government opened dialogue with the US beginning in the 1950s. Between August 1955 and February 1970, China and the US held 136 talks at ambassadorial level, but both sides failed to make any progress on the key matter of easing and eliminating the tense situation in the Taiwan Straits. At the end of the 1960s and the start of the 1970s, as changes took place in the international situation and China grew in strength, the US began to adjust its policies towards China, and relations between the two countries gradually thawed. In October 1971, the 26th United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 2758, which restored the People’s Republic of China’s legal rights in the United Nations and expelled the Taiwan authorities’ representative. In February 1972, US President Nixon visited China, at which time both sides issued the Joint Communiqué. The communiqué stated, “The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.”

　　In December 1978, the US government accepted the three principles for establishing diplomatic relations proposed by the Chinese government: the US must cease diplomatic relations with the Taiwan authorities, cancel the Joint Defense Treaty and withdraw troops from Taiwan. China and the US officially established diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979. The Sino-American Joint Communiqué on establishing diplomatic relations declared, “The United States of America recognizes the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China. Within this context, the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan…The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.” At this time Sino-US relations were normalized.

　　Unfortunately, within three months of establishing diplomatic relations, the US Congress unexpectedly passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which was ratified with the signature of the President. The Taiwan Relations Act, which used US domestic legislation, contained a number of regulations that contravened the Sino-US Joint Communiqué and international laws and regulations, and which seriously damaged the rights and interests of the Chinese people. On the basis of the Taiwan Relations Act, the US government continued to sell arms to Taiwan and interfere in China’s domestic affairs, thereby hindering the unification of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland.

　　In order to resolve the issue of the US selling arms to Taiwan, following discussions, the Chinese and US governments reached an agreement on August 17, 1982, and issued their third Joint Communiqué: the August 17th Communiqué. In the communiqué, the US government declared, “The United States Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, that its arms sales to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms, the level of those supplied in recent years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution.” Nevertheless, over the following 10 years, the US government not only failed to implement the regulations in the Joint Communiqué, but constantly broke the terms of it. In September 1992, the US government even sold 150 F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan. This action by the US government increased the barriers and resistance to developing Sino-US relations and resolving the Taiwan issue.

　　From the above it is clear that the Taiwan issue has not yet been resolved and that the US government bears some responsibility for this. Since the 1970s, many friendly people in government and among the public with breadth of vision in the US have done a great deal of beneficial work to urge China and the United States to resolve their differences over the Taiwan issue, and the three Joint Communiqués encapsulate their hard work and contributions. The Chinese government and people are very appreciative of this. However, it is impossible to neglect the fact that the US also contains people who, even today, do not wish to see a unified China, and who make up various excuses and exert their influence to hinder the resolution of the Taiwan issue.

　　The Chinese government believes that the US people and Chinese people are friends. The normal development of relations between our two countries accords with the long-term interests and common aspirations of our two peoples. Both China and the US should value highly the hard-won three Joint Communiqués which guide the development of Sino-US relations. As long as both sides can scrupulously abide by the principles of the three communiqués, respect each other and focus on the major issues, it will not be difficult to resolve the lingering historical issue of Taiwan, and Sino-US relations will, without doubt, constantly improve and develop.