China and Taiwan: a torrid history

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This transcript was created with speech popularity software. Although it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the audio of the episode before quoting this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes. com if you have any questions.

From the “New York Times”, I’m Sabrina Tavernise. Et it’s “The Daily”. [MUSIC IN PROGRESS]

The position between the U. S. and the U. S. The U. S. and Chinese trade has intensified in recent weeks, especially when it comes to Taiwan. Today, my colleague Edward Wong explains why China is so obsessed with Taiwan and how the United States cared about all this.

It’s Monday, April 17.

So, Ed, Taiwan has been in the news for a few weeks. Tell us why.

Well, Sabrina, she noticed that tensions soared this month over Taiwan. Earlier this month, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen stopped in Los Angeles as she returned to Taiwan from Central America.

I would like to thank President McCarthy for his hospitality.

He visited the Reagan Library in Southern California and met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The friendship between the peoples of Taiwan and the United States is of paramount importance to the loose world.

This angered the People’s Republic of China.

Today, China condemns House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for Taiwan’s president at the Reagan Library.

They don’t want to see any kind of diplomacy, even in form, between Taiwanese officials and U. S. officials. And they announced the start of military exercises in Taiwan.

In the Taiwan Strait, the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong introduced fighter jet missions and 40 helicopter flights.

This is the newest wave of tension that periodically and has happened in recent years.

The exercises came with an ominous warning, the Chinese military is fit to fight.

It feels like we’re in this cycle where Taiwan is doing something pretty minor and China is reacting. And he posits that many of us here at “The Daily” have asked, why is China so obsessed with Taiwan?

Well, this is a clash that goes back a century. And it permeates China’s domestic and foreign policy and the factor of Chinese nationalism. And there are many tactics to tell the story. But there are a handful of moments that really outline it. And I started with what many other people are at the root of the fashion fixation. And that happened in the late 1940s.

Once again, the crisis is coming to China, whose millions are now asking a single question: what does the long term hold?

Thus, at that time, a civil war broke out in China between the Nationalist Party, also known as the Guomindang, and the communists.

In the spring of 1947, the Communists erupted in a series of offensives that left Manchuria’s nationalist garrisons stunned and confused.

Nationalists have ruled China for many years under authoritarian rule. And its leader is Chiang Kai-shek. From now on, many Chinese thought that this party was corrupt and only served the interests of the elite. And they were eager to have a new tipo. de government. And at that time, Mao Zedong led the Communists and the Communist Army in a fight against the nationalists.

Today, communist leader Mao Tse-tung is one victory after another.

And many other people from the countryside, as well as students, intellectuals and city officials, joined their cause and were able to fight against the nationalists.

The morale of the reds is high. And most importantly, they knew why they were fighting.

The civil war dragged on for years. And finally, the communist army won the hand.

Mao Tse-tung that the revolutionary war of the Chinese people has now reached a turning point.

And in October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.

The Reds brought the face of China and brought the world’s largest country into the communist empire.

And so the nationalists had to flee. And they left mainland China and went to the island of Taiwan on the southeast coast of China.

General Chiang Kai-shek returns by force as president of Nationalist China. He assumed his duties in exile on Formosa, an island with castles miles from mainland China.

And then, once they settled on the island in 1949, they set out to reshape their society and that of the island. And they claimed that they were still the rulers of China.

After their disastrous defeat at the hands of the Communists, the Nationalists came from nothing.

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And what did it look like, Ed?

Thus, the government the Nationalists established in Taiwan closely resembled the government they ran in mainland China. For example, in Taiwan, they had officials who they believed were heads of provinces in China. such as Mongolia and Tibet in China.

Wow.

And they also had some of the greatest sacred symbols of ancient China. They brought treasures from the Forbidden City accumulated through past dynasties and brought them to Taiwan. So, whether in government and in culture, they were necessarily China.

Like Taiwan in its own narrative, a complete edition of China in exile even in the ultimate sacred elements of Chinese history.

That’s true, Sabrina. Et it’s very important. They said their aspiration would one day be to overthrow the communists and repair China.

So you can see why communist China would be going through this. A renegade China that well lost the civil war is moving right next door and pretending that this is the genuine China.

Well, Sabrina, they’re more than upset. Mao saw it as an unfinished component of the civil war. And he intends to conquer Taiwan and bring it back to China.

So, yes, there are two other parties that say they are genuine China. And one aspect says that it must adopt the other aspect.

Exactly.

And how does the global deal with this scenario of two Chinas?

Well, some nations recognize the People’s Republic of China. But the U. S. The U. S. does support Taiwan as the valid government of China.

And why is the United States doing this?

Well, at this point, the Americans were involved in the Cold War. They are seeking everything possible to contain the Soviet Union and involve the spread of communism around the world. Therefore, they did not need to recognize the Chinese Communists as the valid ones. government. And so they that Taiwan, even though it is an authoritarian government, deserves to be the valid leader of China. And this U. S. aid. The U. S. trade union for Taiwan continued for many years. But in the 1960s, everything began to change.

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Remember, the Cold War was very complicated. And in Southeast Asia, Americans fought in the Vietnam War opposed to Vietnamese communists, who received aid through the Soviet Union and China. And in 1971, the war was going badly for the United States. . And President Nixon and his aides think that if they can only establish diplomatic relations with China, then maybe they can get the Chinese Communists to withdraw their aid for the North Vietnamese and the Soviets. And that would hasten the end of the war in Vietnam. .

So, basically, swallowing their aversion to a communist regime to engage them and hoping that it would end this disastrous war they were involved in.

That is precisely it. And in addition to the urgent factor of the Vietnam War, Nixon and his aides were also beginning to recognize China’s potential power. And they think that the country can be just a spouse if they take the right diplomatic steps.

So what does Nixon do?

In 1971, Nixon secretly sent his aide, Henry Kissinger, to China to begin talks with Chinese officials about reopening diplomatic relations. Shortly after Kissinger’s secret visit, Nixon announced that he himself would travel to Beijing.

There can be no solid and lasting peace with the participation of the People’s Republic of China and its 750 million people.

And in 1972, he went there.

[Chat]

East meets west when a handshake closes the hole between 16,000 miles and 22 years of hostility.

He goes to the Great Wall.

The president said we deserve to conclude that this is a Great Wall built through wonderful people.

And talk to Mao Zedong.

At the top, face to face, two leaders directing the destiny of one in three people on Earth

This is a huge and impactful occasion in diplomacy around the world.

So Nixon here is switching sides, reversing decades of American foreign policy.

Oui. Et opens a new bankruptcy in relations between the US and China. U. S. and Chinese and global diplomacy. And the moves of the U. S. government. U. S. statements that began under Nixon culminate in 1979:

The United States of America and the People’s Republic of China agreed to recognize and identify other diplomatic relations as of January 1, 1979.

– when President Carter officially establishes the diplomatic popularity of the Communist-led one in Beijing as China’s valid.

The U. S. government The US recognizes the Chinese position that there is a China and that Taiwan is part of China.

And it officially cuts off diplomacy with Taiwan.

So at this point, what does communist China want?

President Carter gave China much of what it sought, the diplomatic popularity of its administration. But Carter also brushed aside the issue of Taiwan. A very confusing evasive maneuver.

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He said in his own words that the U. S. The US recognizes China’s position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it. But that doesn’t mean the U. S. is going to do the job. The U. S. government supports that position. Carter did not explicitly mention Beijing’s concept that he was now the ruler of Taiwan. He simply said that he knew what Beijing’s concept of the situation was. And this is the basis of what the United States calls its One China policy.

So, is this a true act of political jujitsu on the part of the United States?With Carter telling Beijing, we recognize that he believes Taiwan is part of China. We hear it. But we are saying that we agree.

That is precisely it. Carter deliberately left the U. S. government’s position vague. And this would have far-reaching consequences for decades to come.

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‘Ll.

So, Ed, you say that the U. S. The US deliberately left its position on Taiwan ambiguous. How does this happen?

So when Carter made this announcement, officially building diplomatic relations with China, not everyone in the United States was enthusiastic about it. And some lawmakers in Congress are not satisfied with Beijing’s popularity and this loss to Taiwan. They need to protect Taiwan in case the Chinese Communist Party tries to do anything that opposes it.

Thus, in 1979, the same year that Carter’s leadership officially established diplomatic relations with China, Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act. It necessarily commits the United States to protecting Taiwan with safe tactics without explicitly saying that its military would come to Taiwan’s defense. This law stipulates that the United States will have to provide defensive weapons to Taiwan. He says he will have to have an ability to protect Taiwan if there is coercion. And it says it will work to make sure any friction or tension over Taiwan is resolved peacefully.

Doesn’t this seem to go against U. S. diplomatic efforts?Why China and the U. S. Have the U. S. just spent the entire 1970s in diplomatic relations?And now, if China takes military action against Taiwan, this new condition necessarily says that the U. S. will take military action. The U. S. can simply take steps to protect Taiwan.

And this creates this deep mistrust between the leaders in Beijing, on the one hand, and the United States and Taiwan, on the other. And in the coming decades, it happens in Taiwan that makes China even more upset. So remember, Taiwan’s early nationalist leaders had the sole purpose of retaking China.

And then there were the new generations of Taiwanese born on the island, who had never been to China and had no interest in claiming property from China. In reality, they were more interested in their identity as Taiwanese and their government in Taiwan. In the 1990s, there was this groundswell of leaders across the island to install a new political system. People were looking for a democracy. And they sought multiple parties and a general election.

Therefore, until now, Taiwan has necessarily noted its long haul as being connected to China. But now Taiwan is kind of striking on its own, which is very threatening to China?

Droite. Et, of course, China is this very closely. And this drive for democracy culminated in the first Democratic presidential election in 1996.

For Taiwanese, this is the moment they are most proud of.

Taiwanese have elected their first country-born president, Lee Teng-hui.

President Lee won with nearly 54% of the vote.

Communist China is shaking our democracy, Lee Teng-hui told the crowd. He calls aging Chinese leaders blond.

And his decisive victory and taste for leadership sent a message to Beijing. He and the other Taiwanese said that even if Taiwan did not blatantly claim to be an independent country, it would push the borders and move away from this one-China idea.

So how is China responding?

Well, of course, the communist leaders are worried.

In mainland China, communist leaders aren’t just in the democratic frenzy in Taiwan. They have literally become ballistic.

His action took position in the months leading up to and around the election when China took a very competitive step and fired missiles into the waters around Taiwan.

China’s military trainings have signaled to Taiwan that independence is an option.

And then America sees that. And he responds by sending warships to the Taiwan region to tell Beijing to back down.

Our being here is to demonstrate the presence and commitment of the United States to peace and stability in the region.

With two U. S. naval battle groups now in the South China Sea, nerves are intensifying.

Such is this American policy of looking but touching.

Some say this moment was the first major brake on this tripartite dynamic that the U. S. has come to the fore. The U. S. has established with its Taiwan policy. come.

The style is that China has that unfinished business with Taiwan. And the country reacts to each other’s moves with Taiwan in between.

That’s right. And that sense of approaching a close clash has grown a lot in recent years, especially as we’ve noticed a more competitive leader emerging in China. Xi Jinping, the current leader of China, has made some very ambitious statements about Taiwan. After taking effect in 2012, he said the Taiwan factor might simply not be passed down from generation to generation. And for some people, that suggests Xi can take ambitious and decisive steps in Taiwan in the short or long term to address this factor. And then, in the United States, you also had this transition from President Obama to President Trump, which was much more confrontational with China.

Trump campaigned on how tough he’s going to be on China.

That is precisely it. So, for example, after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, officials who worked with President Trump took a much more assertive stance on China. And they actually framed US-China relations as an intense festival and rejected any option of cooperation between the two nations. At the end of the Trump administration, they sought to position Taiwan and the government there as a bulwark against China.

In words, China and the U. S. The U. S. is more competitive right now.

That is precisely it. And he noted that the Biden administration continues to crack down on the Taiwan Strait. Biden officials continued to send warships through the strait as a signal to Beijing. And President Biden himself has said 4 times now that he will ask the U. S. military to do so. China is trying to take military action against the island.

So at this point in history, it almost turns out that the United States is as obsessed with Taiwan as it is with China. For what?

Well, I think there are several reasons for that, Sabrina. U. S. Taiwan is a vital strategic point to contain China. So, for example, they must ensure that the Chinese military cannot make its success beyond Taiwan and other island chains in the far Pacific any bigger. And as long as Taiwan remains self-sufficient and has physically powerful armed forces, it will be difficult for China to do so.

So, a check on the power of China’s military.

Accuracy. U. S. officialsthey have also begun to realize Taiwan’s importance in the global economy. At this point, Taiwan has the most complex semiconductor industry in the world. to the maximum complex military systems that the United States and other countries deploy around the world. Therefore, the United States sees Taiwan’s semiconductor industry as something it wants to protect. And he sees it as a sector that China can’t get its hands on.

So, Ed, when we started this verbal exchange about Taiwan, the big question was who was genuine China. But what you’ve presented here is much broader than that. Taiwan has come to constitute much more for the United States and China. It came to symbolize this war between the two superpowers for military power, for the economy. He seems to understand the long-term fate of the world in many ways.

Sabrina, when I communicate with U. S. officialshere in Washington, they communicate about it in those vital terms, too. And some of them are blatantly speculating about whether the U. S. will be able to do so. The US and China will end up waging a war over Taiwan in the coming years. But it needs this war. When you look at the movements made across the U. S. According to the U. S. and China, you can say they should make sure they don’t cross that line. They will pass to the edge. But they are not willing to take the next step.

And all this comes out of Taiwan?

Well, of course, the Taiwanese don’t need war on their island. So even today, Taiwan’s leaders seek to calibrate their moves very carefully. We have noticed this recently. When House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Speaker Tsai Ing-wen in Southern California, Speaker Tsai may have simply invited him to Taiwan.

But she preferred to meet him on American soil. I suspect he knew Beijing would see this as a less provocative action. And it turns out he was right. We have noticed how the Chinese have reacted. They sent warships and planes around the Taiwan Strait. But it is a far less intense military action than other things they have done in the recent past.

Taiwan was just testing the line, measuring how far it could go without provoking all the fury from China.

Oui. Et I President Tsai’s calculation is an example of the tightrope Taiwanese leaders and citizens have been walking for decades.

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It’s attractive because Taiwan would be in a pretty vulnerable position. But he says Taiwan has an agency.

Yes, in many tactics it’s counterintuitive, Sabrina. Many other people think that Taiwan is this small island of 23 million people living in the shadow of China. And it is true that Beijing has taken steps to isolate them diplomatically from much of the world. But the Taiwanese see themselves as much more than a pawn in a geopolitical festival between superpowers.

And despite all the pressure on them, they have managed to build a meaningful economy over the years. They created a new government. And they put democracy into practice. And they controlled to avoid armed confrontations on their island during all those decades. So when I tell Taiwanese officials and citizens those days, many of them tell me that the fate of the island is in their hands.

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Ed, thank you.

Thank you, Sabrina. Es a pleasure to communicate with you. [MUSIC IN PROGRESS]

‘Ll.

Here’s what he knows today.

Over the weekend, Sudan descended into violence with street battles in Khartoum, the capital. Four years ago, Sudan was an inspiration to the world when its citizens overthrew a widely hated leader, Omar al-Bashir. The revolution failed 18 months ago when the army seized force in a coup. The army intended to hand over the force to civilian rulers this week. Instead, two generals, each commanding other factions of the armed forces, are now fighting for the country. Dozens of others were killed in the fighting and many were wounded.

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Today’s episode was produced by Stella Tan, Mary Wilson and Shannon Lin with the help of Luke Vander Ploeg. Edited by MJ Davis Lin, verified by Susan Lee, it includes original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Rowan Niemisto. Designed by Chris Wood Our theme song is through Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Amy Chin.

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That’s it for “El Diario. ” My is Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.