The Taiwan Issue: 85% Taiwanese do not want to join China

[Tshering22]

Taiwan if not uniting with mainland is better for us. Their claims are beyond their size in almost unimaginable way.

 

[maomao]

@ohimalaya

Tibet, East Turkistan, Inner Mangolia, Hong Kong etc are dying to get out of the clutches of China...The First two are actually laying their lives in Thousands hiting at Han Chinese when and where they can, unlike defunct Bodoland, Assam etc insurgencies.

As per your stupid claim of Sikkim, I can't stop laughing , I have been there and they don't like China!

 

[stickman]

A Child's Relationship With Her Mother.
The daughter is naughty, but there is no doubt about the blood relationship.

 

[ajtr]

Is Taiwan a Nation?
On the Current Debate over Taiwanese Nationalism and National Identity
Jiang Yi-huah
Department of Political Science
National Taiwan University​

 

[keshtopatel]

If China was not able to reunite with Taiwan during this world economic crisis;they can forget ever reuniting it's just a pipe dream.

Uniting may not be an appropriate word here. Since majority of Taiwanese folks dont want the unification. Its more of a confrontation probably slated into futur war. Its more of China trying to wrestle away Taiwan than otherwise. Thats why Taiwanese pilots are on hair trigger alert.

 

[neo29]

2010 Opinion Poll on Cross-Strait Relations

85% Taiwanese don't want to join mainland China.

Probably 85% of world dont want Taiwan to join China ==no+=way==

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Chinese could not care less about taiwanese the only reason they are pushing this point is to take over the taiwanese wealth and their economy.

 

[Tshering22]

^^ No LF, I don't think that PRC wants Taiwan for its economy because most of PRC's major cities are already very very advanced and match Taiwan's status and some even exceed them. The main reason why PRC lays down claim to all the territories in Asia is because of an old Russian strategy they've learnt: create as much buffer land for the enemy as possible by acquiring more and more lands. Taiwan, Indian states (provinces) of Ladakh (Aksai Chin), Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, Mongolia, Vietnamese islands, Tibet and some other islands that are currently disputed by China are simply either rich in minerals or give Chinese additional buffer zones against India, Russia and other countries that it feels it will likely fight in the future.

There are only 3 countries that are capable of withstanding PRC in Asia and those are India, Russia (through Siberia) and Japan. So PRC is trying to take as many buffer zones as possible for a possible confrontation that it feels will be imminent in future. Which is why the PRC also have a really skewed focus on developing thousands of missiles rather than rapid deploying of conventional forces behind enemy lines. The strategy has an advantage but when taken soldier-to-soldier, it is equally a problem for PRC unless they have PLA forward bases in the Occupied or contested regions.

As Indians, we shouldn't pay too much concern to Taiwan as the Nationalist government of Taiwan claims large swathes of Indian territory also as theirs apart from most South Asian, central Asian states, meaning that they would only be a trouble in the future. Remember that they have only an internal political dispute with their fellow CCP members who are also CHINESE.

We must focus on cultivating ties with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and entire Southeast Asia to make sure PRC doesn't take Asia for granted along with their doormat called Pakistan.

 

[neo29]

PRC has nothing to do with Taiwan economy. Even if Taiwan was in shambles still they want it. Its an ego issue.

The PLA defeat Kuomintang during the Chinese civil war, and Kuomintang retreat to Taiwan. PLA want to make sure than Kuomintang is wiped out completely and that gives them a complete victory in the already over Chinese civil war. According to PLA, their prestige is at stake if they dont get Taiwan under their control.

 

[amoy]

Taiwan economy? Over 1B Taiwanese now work/invest in Mainland and Taiwan relies on $$ billion of trade surplus from Mainland or its economy could have gone into a standstil like Japan or lagged behind S.Korea.

I'm keying just thousands of meters away from Taiwan controlled Kinmen Islands (google search). Every year during Mid-Autumn Festival or National Day (Taiwan 10 Oct and Mainland 1 Oct) or Spring Festival, we observe from both sides fireworks crackle across the sky.

When we were kids, the west side of Taiwan Straits regarded Taiwan (East) as a role model envious of their economic prosperity. Coastal residents sometimes got 'gifts' like foods or radios, brought by balloons from Taiwan with slogans "Taiwan is the lighthouse of China, soon to emancipate mainland compatriots from 'communist tyranny'". Many are fascinated by Taiwan's pop culture even up to date (Taiwan broadcast/TV used to bring coastal residents lots of fun in contrast to to dull programs this side).

When Deng Xiaoping put forward "One China, Two Systems", Chiang Jing-Kuo countered wittily and confidently with "One China, (One) Better System".

But now although Taiwan ROC may be still 'rich' with GDP probably equivalent to Pakistan+Bangladesh+Sri Lanka+Maldive, do u still see the same kind of confidence as before when mainland becomes a magnet?

Nowadays it takes Taiwanese from Kinmen probably 1hour by boat to this city. Aren't they overwhelmed after seeing what mainland is really like?

Reunification is more a vision or a faith than something to be put into instant action. Take it easy! Frankly I think status quo is the best. Let the two sides go down each's road (or compete) with different experiments. Let time judge what is in the best interest of Chinese or perhaps a 'better' but blending pattern may come into being someday.

 

[ajtr]

Six decades of made-up politics​

By J. Michael Cole 寇謐將
Friday, Sep 24, 2010, Page 8

Aside from the business and geopolitical imperatives that stem from the international community's desire to interact with the People's Republic of China (PRC), another reason why Taiwan remains in political isolation is that its history and domestic conditions are misunderstood, not only globally, but also in China and by many of the foreign correspondents who cover Taiwan.
Routine references to Taiwan and China "splitting" after the Chinese civil war, for example, or the mention that Taiwan and China have been ruled separately for "more than six decades," are not only misleading — they are wrong. Beyond failing to get the facts right (disunited entities cannot split, and Taiwan was ruled separately for at least 11 decades, counting Japanese rule), these facile insertions tend to reinforce the view that Taiwan and China are one and the same — or rather, that one ought to be subsumed into the other.

These generalizations also fail to take into account the political fabric of Taiwanese society, which rather than being the monolith it is often portrayed as (a mistake that has equal implications when it comes to coverage of China), is far more complex and diversified.

Ironically, the external view of Taiwanese politics tends to attribute to the 23 million people in Taiwan the position of a tiny minority on the island. This has been the true since Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces fled to Taiwan after their defeat by the communists in 1949. Soon afterwards, this government-in-exile imposed itself on Taiwanese and arrogated upon itself the right to rule the 7.39 million people who lived in Taiwan at the time, 1.37 million, or 18.55 percent, of whom were refugees from China.

When Chiang and the KMT, from 1949 until that dream collapsed as a result of its own stupidity, threatened to retake the "mainland," the rest of the world assumed they were speaking for Taiwan as a whole, failing to realize that those aspirations were only felt by, at most, one-fifth of the population (and probably less, as mainlanders intermarried, built new lives for themselves and no longer wanted anything to do with the Chinese Civil War).

During the final years of president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and the 12 years president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was in power, the KMT also underwent a transformation that saw it become more localized, progress that culminated in Lee's formulation of the Two-State Theory. Not only did this move Taiwan toward consolidation as an independent state, but of equal importance, it also departed from the prevailing KMT view that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the PRC were illegitimate and that the KMT's Republic of China (ROC) was the one and only China. By doing so, the KMT came closer to reflecting the views of ordinary Taiwanese, who, though they disliked the authoritarianism they saw in China and felt threatened by the CCP's ambitions to "liberate" Taiwan, did not deny the existence of their neighbor as a sovereign state in its own right.

This process was taken even further under the eight years of the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) presidency, during which time Taiwanese identity was not only celebrated, but also reinforced. Chen's policies on Taiwanese identity and his "one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait" were also based on recognition of the PRC and the CCP as legitimate political entities, which again dovetailed with the majority consensus among Taiwanese.

One by-product of China's closed political system and state control of the media is that the sense of Taiwanese nationhood that always existed remained largely unknown to ordinary Chinese, who were fed propaganda that defined Taiwan as a lethal enemy seeking to undermine all that was good in the PRC.

By failing to look at the nuances of history and politics, foreign media coverage of Taiwan commits the same sin — a worse one, given their access is better than that of even the most well-intentioned Chinese. That is why some outlets find it easy to portray the Democratic Progressive Party as "anti-China," which it isn't. It is pro-Taiwan, as are the great majority of Taiwanese.

"Anti-China" would imply the negation of China as a political entity, which, but for a few "extremists," is an altogether discredited idea in Taiwan. It is no small irony that Westerners who have lived in China for a while also believe that Taiwan and Taiwanese do not recognize the PRC and the CCP.

Sadly, under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) the KMT has resurrected the idea that there is only one China — the ROC — and that its sole legitimate ruler is the KMT. Such comments, which receive far more airtime in China and abroad than do those who disagree with them, are an attempt to turn back the clock and could reinforce the view in China that Taiwan is, indeed, "anti-China."

However, this could not be further from the truth. Not only does Ma's contention highlight that the faction within the KMT that had localized and adapted to modern realities under CCK and Lee has been sidelined, but it further contrasts the views of ordinary Taiwanese with the increasingly small minority of people in Taiwan who identify as Chinese rather than Taiwanese.

Unless the KMT manages to socially re-engineer Taiwanese society — and there are signs it is trying to do so via reforms in education — those increasingly diverging views can only spell trouble for the KMT in future elections. It could save itself if the faction that is more grounded in Taiwanese reality gets the upper hand within the party.

Despite the political rhetoric of the Ma administration, Taiwanese have absolutely no claim over China, nor do they seek to threaten it, militarily or politically. Simultaneously, ordinary Chinese and the CCP should acknowledge that people in Taiwan increasingly identify as Taiwanese and that support for immediate unification continues to drop (now as low as 5 percent, from 9 percent in 2000, by some accounts) while that for the "status quo" and/or immediate Taiwanese independence (now at 16 percent, from 12 percent a decade ago) is steadily rising.

With their political blinders still on, it is no wonder that Chinese and international media are failing to see the trouble that lies ahead in the Taiwan Strait, when Ma's "peace" and Beijing's ambitions of unification collide with the very different (and conveniently ignored) realities of domestic politics in Taiwan.

The so-called "warming ties" are party-to-party, not state-to-state or between two peoples, and should be characterized as such. These are realities that every responsible international media outlet should seek to reflect in its reporting, both for sake of accuracy and out of respect for the 23 million people who, to this day, remain misunderstood.



J. Michael Cole is deputy news editor at the Taipei Times.

 

[ajtr]

Greater China
Oct 1, 2010

Taiwanese cool to China's overtures​

By Jens Kastner and Wang Jyh-Perng

TAIPEI - When a Chinese leader speaks on Taiwan, an army of cross-strait observers weighs his words. Phrases and gestures are analyzed, and particular attention is turned on what Beijing's official chose not to say.

Recently in New York, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao did say that China's missiles aimed at Taiwan would eventually be removed; Wen did not say that the Taiwanese must first recognize the one-China principle, according to which their island is part of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

What barely amounted to a complete sentence was picked to pieces. Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) called it evidence of



Chinese goodwill. Taiwan's main opposition party, the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), flatly dismissed the talk as empty words.

Others, however, saw Beijing's game plan clearly exposed: after having enticed the rich through the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that Taiwan and China signed earlier this year, and the rural population having been lured by large-scale procurements of Taiwanese agricultural products, Beijing aims at lulling Taiwan's military into passivity. According to China's alleged assessments, the rest of the population will follow suit.

Yet, if this were China's strategy, it is showing cracks. It seems neither Taiwan's military nor the public find Wen's overtures or, indeed, China in general, particularly trustworthy.

"In fact, many of Taiwan's military officials oppose the China-Taiwan confidence-building measures currently being established," says Arthur Ding, research fellow at Taiwan's National Chengchi University's China Politics Division in an interview with Asia Times Online. "Taiwan's military will follow whatever is instructed by the political leadership, yet in general, it is wary of the PRC's proposals," Ding says.

The confidence-building measures that Ding refers to are still in their infancy. Nearly coinciding with the signing of the ECFA, a large-scale symposium was held at the Chinese city of Xiamen's Taiwan Research Institute to bring retired military brass from both sides of the Taiwan Strait together.

Beijing's suspected plan is plausible: distinguished grey-haired Taiwanese military men who fought or whose father's fought Mao Zedong's communists in the Chinese civil war in the late 1940s could function as a direct line to Taiwan's present-day leadership. This would work as the old Taiwanese, just like their mainland counterparts, had never given up hope on eventual reunification.

Not long after the symposium, People's Liberation Army spokesman Senior Colonel Geng Yansheng surprised domestic and foreign media by announcing that China's missiles stationed along Fujian province's coast could be removed. However, Geng was quick to point out that the disarmament had to be based on the one-China principle.

At that time, Taiwan responded coolly. President Ma Ying-jeou said through his spokesman that only if Beijing removed the missiles without conditions, would this be taken as a step toward improving bilateral relations.

But, barely three months later, Ma finally had his chance to show significantly more enthusiasm. "Taiwan welcomes Wen's remarks on missiles," the island's newspapers' headlines heralded the day after China's premier spoke in New York. So why did Wen choose not to insist on the one-China principle this time? Was it because China now says that it is fine if Taiwan never recognizes the government in Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China?
Or has Beijing agreed on the Taiwanese version of the so-called "92 consensus", according to which both sides agree that although China and Taiwan belong to the same China, as long each side can have its own definition of that one China? Or was the genuine purpose of China's overtures what parts of Taiwanese military circles suspect: an attempt by Beijing to sow discord among senior officials at Taiwan's Ministry of Defense, with high-ranking personnel divided over all this goodwill coming from the former arch-enemy?

None of these proposals are right, says Ding. "There was simply no need for Wen Jiabao to mention the one-China principle." He elaborates, "Wen wasn't sitting in formal negotiations, so he can make any kind of remark he wants to that sounds attractive. Taiwan's military is fully aware of the condition imposed by China on a missile withdrawal, and that is the one-China principle."

An even bigger headache to Beijing than the cold shoulder it is getting from Taiwan's military is signs that Taiwan's public doesn't hold China, the Chinese government or even Chinese civilians in particularly high esteem.

A recent survey by the United Daily News, one of Taiwan's major newspapers, which intriguingly is strongly pro-KMT and supports the incorporation of Taiwan within China, somewhat rocked the boat. It seems the impression the Taiwanese have about China's one-party government isn't overly positive.

The majority of respondents also chose attributes such as "annoyingly determined", "selfish", "upstart", "being only after personal profit" and even "generally uncivilized" to describe Chinese civilians. Surely this wasn't what the governments in Beijing or in Taipei had expected after two years of warming cross-strait ties and social and cultural exchanges.

The survey's most striking finding, however, was how the Taiwanese regard the prospect of eventual unification. In 2000, 12% wanted a quick declaration of Taiwanese independence, last month it was 16%. Ten years ago, 32% of respondents spoke out in favor of maintaining the current status quo "eternally", now it's 51%. The percentage of Taiwanese that wanted to keep the status quo and unify in the distant future dropped from 20% to 9%.

China's public relations problem leaves the KMT government in a dilemma. The more Beijing senses that the KMT's candidates could fare badly in mayoral elections to be held in Taiwan's five biggest cities later this year, the more Beijing doubts that President Ma will win his own re-election bid in 2012. This makes Beijing likely to intensify its pressure on Ma since Chinese President Hu Jintao himself is under the gun.

Hu's internal opponents, Beijing's hawkish factions, are pushing him to make Ma pay back the economic favors Beijing granted to Taiwan under the ECFA through major political concessions during the remainder of both Ma's and Hu's presidencies - Hu and Wen are required to step down in 2013. However, if Taiwan's government repays its debt too fast, the chances that the KMT will lose the elections will grow. If China allows Ma to repay little by little, he might not be able to pay it all off.

If China fails to win Taiwanese hearts and minds any time soon, it could well be too late. Wen's remarks made in New York regarding China's missiles will be taken by some Taiwanese as a genuine gesture of goodwill. Whether it will be enough, however, is questionable.

To Ding, Beijing, with its furious tirades aimed at Japan over the recent arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain who crossed into waters around the disputed Diayutai Islands, has just produced yet another public relations gaffe that turns the Taiwanese off.

He says, "China's recent reaction to Japan has frightened Taiwan over closer economic ties, and that is China's consistent problem: China cannot be trusted at all by Taiwanese, and it will be difficult to build confidence, less trust."

Jens Kastner is a Taipei-based writer. Wang Jyh-Perng is a reserve captain of the Taiwan Navy and associate research fellow at the Association for Managing Defense and Strategies.

 

[tony4562]

I don't have a problem with an independent taiwan. But it won't happen anytime soon as the number of people who advocate out right independence roughly equals the number of people who want to have eventual unification, most people including me want to has status-quo. I believe a chinese society, like singapore or taiwan that are out of reach of CCP are good for the people on the mainland as well. But at the end of the day your shadenfreude will bring nothing for India. East asian companies still prefer to do business with other east asians and east asians across the board still group the indians together with sub-sahara africans.

 

[Daredevil]

I don't have a problem with an independent taiwan. But it won't happen anytime soon as the number of people who advocate out right independence roughly equals the number of people who want to have eventual unification, most people including me want to has status-quo.

Perhaps you have not read the polls conducted by Pro-China KMT party's news outlet. 85% of Taiwanese don't want to join China according to the polls putting your claims of 50% wanting to joining China into dustbin. Here is the poll

Kuomintang News Network

 

[tony4562]

Most people prefer status-quo, this is what I was implying. If 85% of people want to declare independence, Mr.Ma would not have won the election. I like the current status-quo to be kept for another 50 years, then we go from there. I am personally against war under any circumstances.

 

[Patriot]

Taiwan faces rising China threat despite warmer ties: Report | Defense & Security News at DefenseTalk

Taipei: Taiwan's vice defence minister warned that China represented an increasing threat to the island's security despite improving ties between the former bitter rivals, Taipei-based media reported Tuesday.

Andrew Yang, currently visiting the United States, was quoted as saying that there was no sign that China had been relaxing its military deployment against Taiwan regardless of a warmer relationship between the two sides.

"The security threat we face is not falling, but actually growing," he was quoted by the state Central News Agency as saying in a speech to a Taiwan-US defence conference in Maryland.

Yang was referring to comments by Chinese defence minister Liang Guanglie that the mainland's military buildup retains its focus on Taiwan, it said.

Ties have improved markedly after Beijing-friendly Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan's president in 2008, but China still refuses to renounce the possibility of using force should the island declare independence.

Yang again urged Washington to sell F-16 fighter jets and diesel submarines to the island to help maintain the balance in the Taiwan Strait, the report said.

Taiwan has repeatedly pressed the US for the sale of F-16C/Ds, saying sufficient weapons would make the island more confident in dealing with Beijing.

Washington early this year announced a weapons package for Taiwan that includes Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters, and equipment for Taiwan's F-16 fleet, but no submarines or new fighter aircraft.

Analysts have said they doubt Washington would risk angering Beijing by approving more sensitive items like F-16 C/Ds and submarines.

 

[amoy]

Taiwan detects first case of 'superbug'

TAIPEI - Taiwan's disease control bureau said Monday it has detected its first case of a multi-drug resistant bacteria "superbug," a bacteria carrying the New Delhi metallo-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) gene, found in a wounded Taiwan cameraman just back from India.

Related readings:
Beijing to keep eye on superbug
'Superbug' no reason for anxiety: health authorities
India dismisses superbug claims
South Asia superbug is potential global problem



The cameraman was shot and wounded last month in India, and he was found carrying an antibiotics-resistant bacteria containing NDM-1 in his intestines after clinical tests, though he developed no symptoms, the bureau said.

The cameraman is recovering and has been discharged from hospital, according to the bureau.

The bureau said the case was strictly monitored during the cameraman's journey from India to the island, and officials ruled out risks from the spread of the disease.

NDM-1 is most prevalent in South Asia, but has also been found in Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, the United States and Sweden.

Taiwan's disease control bureau listed NDM-1 as a communicable disease last month, requiring local hospitals to immediately report any suspected cases, especially those in which the patient previously received medical treatment in India or Pakistan.

 

[tarunraju]

Perhaps you have not read the polls conducted by Pro-China KMT party's news outlet. 85% of Taiwanese don't want to join China according to the polls putting your claims of 50% wanting to joining China into dustbin. Here is the poll

Kuomintang News Network

KMT is pro-China, but not pro One-China. Hence the survey should be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[ajtr]

Taiwanese pride suffers under Ma: poll​

IDENTITYolitical observers said it was hard to take pride in being an ROC citizen when public displays of patriotism, such as showing the flag, are suppressed

A majority of Taiwanese said they did not feel more proud to be a citizen of the Republic of China (ROC) after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May 2008, a poll released by the Taiwan Thinktank ahead of Double Ten National Day showed yesterday.
The poll showed that 65 percent of respondents said they had not felt their sense of pride as an ROC citizen grow after Ma assumed office, while 31.3 percent said they had.
Among respondents who claimed they did not have any political affiliation, about 75 percent said they did not feel more proud to be an ROC citizen, according to the poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday by the think tank, which is generally perceived to be more sympathetic to the pan-green camp.
While the Ma administration has planned various activities this year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ROC next year, nearly 59 percent said they did not know about the government's efforts against 41.5 percent who said they did.
About 96 percent said they did not feel a sense of involvement in the celebrations, against 3.8 percent who said they did. The feeling was reported among pan-blue and pan-green supporters, as well as moderate voters.
Tung Li-wen (董立文), a professor at the Graduate School of Public Security at Central Police University, said the results of the survey were not surprising because the Ma administration's policies had made the public anxious about their future and lose their confidence in the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) governance.
"People can hardly feel proud when the government talks about the '1992 consensus' and the president of this country does not mind being called 'Mister,'" he said.
Tung attributed the declining sense of pride to the polarization of ethnic identification and an unclear national spirit.
People also feel less proud because when they wanted to express their patriotism by holding the national flag, singing the national anthem or saying the country's name out loud, they were prevented from doing so, Tung said."Oh, please, it's Double Ten Day, and we can't even fly our national flag," Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political scientist at Soochow University, said, mimicking the tone of former Executive Yuan secretary-general Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川).
Hsueh complained that it was Father's Day, when he was harshly criticized for dining with his father while the south was ravaged by Typhoon Morakot in August last year.
Hsu was referring to the incident at the Asian University Basketball Championship on Thursday. Spectators were asked to fold up the ROC national flag they were waving on the bleachers. The Chinese team withdrew from a game on Friday when they saw hundreds of ROC national flags from the campus' parking lots all the way to the bleachers, an initiative undertaken by Taiwanese students in response to Thursday's incident.
Hsu urged the government to refrain from using the ROC centennial as a pretext for drumming up support for KMT candidates in next month's municipality elections.
Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), an executive board member at the think tank, said that pride in one's nationality comes from two areas: government efforts to protect sovereignty and a democratic system. However, both have become problematic issues under Ma's leadership, he said.
Former deputy National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信) added that the new term "pride of Taiwan" given to outstanding individuals reflected a certain lack of self-confidence and apprehension about identity.
The poll questioned 1,046 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

 

[ajtr]

A Taiwanese template for China​

During the controversy surrounding Japan's detention of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat in the waters off the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), China displayed the strength of a major power, forcing Japan to call on the US-Japan security treaty and Washington's assistance in reining in Beijing.
The question of how to counterbalance the power of a rising China has become a matter of grave concern to the international community.
Although power in the Taiwan Strait is rapidly tilting in Beijing's favor as its military, diplomatic and economic powers develop far beyond Taiwan's reach, Taipei still possesses certain strengths that remain crucial when dealing with China.
Although Beijing often talks about "socialism with Chinese characteristics," its growth has essentially followed Taiwan's export-led development model.
As a result, the capital, technology and export experience brought in by China-based Taiwanese businesspeople has been an important catalyst for development, presenting a practical example of how Taiwan's soft power is helping to change China.
As the emerging middle class and the number of people who have received higher education in China grow, Chinese society is reaching a turning point, as these groups pay more attention to public affairs and demand a greater part in decision-making.
This makes a clash with the one-party rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) almost inevitable.
As social tensions increase, China will have to move toward political reform.
Taiwan went through this process in the 1970s and 1980s. As discontent with the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) own one-party rule increased among the emerging middle class, people began to demand democracy, freedom and other rights. Despite the KMT's efforts to suppress such demands, which led to the Kaohsiung Incident and the jailing of many pro-democracy dissidents, the party was ultimately forced to end martial law and lift the ban on establishing new political parties and newspapers.
Those moves then led inexorably to free legislative elections and the first popular election of Taiwan's president. The KMT was unable to resist increasing social pressure and in 2000, Taiwan experienced its first peaceful transfer of power.The Chinese leadership is now beginning to realize that economic reform will lead to similar demands for political reform, which is why Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) has recently addressed the topic. Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) also broached the subject in a speech at the fifth plenary session of the CCP's 17th Central Committee. Clearly, the Chinese leadership understands the need for political reform. The question is how extensive it should be and at what speed it should be carried out so as not to cause social instability and minimize its impact on the CCP.
When the Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), it was an indication of strong support for China's democracy movement and while change will not be immediate, it is unavoidable.
The CCP needs to decide whether to attempt to obstruct democracy or facilitate its development. If it chooses the former then history will pass it by, just as it did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. If, however, the CCP decides to embrace change then it could repeat the experience of the KMT, which suffered in the short run, but remains a political force in Taiwan.
The experience of Taiwan over the past 20 years shows that a peaceful and bloodless change from authoritarianism to freedom and democratic rule has built public support for human rights. The best way for Taiwan to help China and the world is to promote such change.