A Longitudinal Examination toward Understanding What Constitutes a Healthy Approach to Balance in the Taiwan Strait

[ 16 ] asia policy A Longitudinal Examination toward Understanding What Constitutes a Healthy Approach to Balance in the Taiwan Strait J. Bruce Jacobs What constitutes a “healthy” balance in cross-strait relations? This essay seeks to shed light on this question by examining the relationship between Taiwan and China over key historical periods. Because Taiwan is already de facto independent (and has been for many years) and because Taiwan does not threaten China, this essay argues that the best way to balance military capabilities across the strait is for China to reduce substantially its national military expenditures. Back to First Principles Although China claims the “reunification” of Taiwan with China is a “fundamental interest” (genben liyi),1 we should remember that neither the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nor the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) even claimed Taiwan until 1942.2 In his July 16, 1936, interview with Edgar Snow, which the CCP repeatedly vetted before publication, Mao Zedong clearly stated, “we will extend them [the Koreans] our enthusiastic help in their struggle for independence. The same thing applies for Formosa.”3 Thus, despite the use of “historical” argumentation, the claim for Taiwan is very modern for both the CCP and the KMT. China now uses false history and racial claims to assert “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.”4 In its argumentation, China today obscures the real status of the Qing Empire and claims the empire was Chinese: “In April 1895, through a war of aggression against China, Japan forced the Qing government to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki, and forcibly occupied 1 Taiwan Affairs Office and the Information Office of the State Council, The One China Principle and the Taiwan Question (Beijing, February 21, 2000), foreword, available at u http://english.people. com.cn/features/taiwanpaper/taiwanb.html. For the Chinese-language version, which is clearer, see Yige Zhongguo de yuanze yu Taiwan wenti, available at u http://www.china.com.cn/ch-book/ taiwan/itaiwan.htm. 2 Alan M. Wachman, Why Taiwan? Geostrategic Rationales for China’s Territorial Integrity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), 69–99. 3 Edgar Snow, Red Star over China (Black Cat, 1938; repr. New York: Grove Press, 1968), 96. This paperback edition is a reprint of the original 1938 version. Snow outlines the procedures of the interviews and argues, “because of such precautions I believe these pages to contain few errors of reporting.” Snow, Red Star over China, 91. 4 See The One China Principle, section 1 (for the Chinese-language version, see Yige Zhongguo). j. bruce jacobs is Professor of Asian Languages and Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He can be reached at . [ 17 ] roundtable • defining a healthy balance Taiwan.”5 In fact, China—like Taiwan—was at the time a colony of the much greater Manchu Empire. Before the arrival of the Dutch in 1624, Chinese never went to Taiwan other than for short trips to fish or buy products from Taiwan’s aboriginal population; no Chinese community existed on Taiwan at that time. It was the Dutch colonial regime in Taiwan (1624–62) that began importing Chinese to the island. The successor regime of Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) and his descendants (1662–83) never intended to “restore the Ming,” given that the last Ming pretender had died in 1661 before the Zheng family took control of Taiwan. Rather, the Zheng family inserted themselves into the Dutch colonial structure and “with the status of an independent nation conducted foreign relations with Japan, Holland, Spain, England and other countries.”6 Almost four decades after conquering China in 1644, the Manchus conquered parts of Taiwan in 1683. This was the first time that any regime in Beijing had controlled even part of Taiwan. At this time China was a relatively small part of the very great Manchu Empire.7 In addition, the Manchus ruled Taiwan under procedures quite separate than those under which China was ruled. In1895,sixteenyearsbeforetheirfall,theManchuscededTaiwantoJapan, who ruled Taiwan via a colonial regime until 1945. The Chinese Nationalists then took over Taiwan and instituted another colonial regime that used the previous Japanese institutional framework. Like the Japanese colonial regime, the Chinese Nationalist regime massacred thousands of Taiwanese early...