2 History

The Taiwan independence movement began under the JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honshese, and was ironically supported by Mao ZedongMao Zedong ( December 26, 1893 September 9, 1976) was the chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1935 until his death. Under his leadership, it became the ruling party of mainland China as the result of its victory in the Chinese Civil War and the in the 1930s as a means of freeing Taiwan from Japanese rule.

After the Kuomintang began to rule the island, the focus of the movement was as a vehicle for discontent from the native Taiwanese against the rule of " mainlanders" (i.e. people who came over with Chiang Kai-shek's armies and government in the late 1940s). Between 1949 and 1991, the official position of the ROC government on Taiwan was that it was the legitimate government of all of China and used this position as justification for authoritarian measures such as the refusal to vacate the seats held by delegates elected on the mainland in 1947 for the Legislative Yuan. The Taiwan independence movement intensified in response to this and presented an alternative vision of a sovereign and independent Republic of Taiwan. This vision was represented through a number of symbols such as the use of Taiwanese in opposition to the school taught Mandarin Chinese. Taiwan independence has been some of the motivation behind the Taiwanese localization movement.

3 Support

The official opinion of the People's Republic of China has always been against Taiwan independence, and it has stated that a formal declaration of Taiwan independence would trigger military intervention. They often state that independence is wanted by only a small group, which is trying to brainwash others into thinking the same thing. Most people on the mainland would have a similar view.

In Taiwan itself, the situation is much more complicated. As mentioned previously there are two different interpretations in Taiwan. For the nationalist one of seeking separation from China, support has grown steadily over the last decade. This change by no means translate into support for independence, which still represents a minority within which there are factions advocating several different, often incompatible approaches.

The view that the status quo is an sovereign Taiwan enjoys near universal support within Taiwan. An overwhelming majority of Taiwanese and virtually all political parties would agree that the Republic of China is a sovereign state (they do disagree bitterly on such details as territory, name, future policies and history though). When the two states theory was put forward by President Lee Teng-hui, he received an 80% support. Similar situations arose when President Chen Shui-bian declared that there was "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait. However, many in the pan-blue coalition and the People's Republic of China believe that Lee and Chen intend on publicly promoting a moderate form of Taiwan independence in order to secretly advance deeper forms of Taiwan independence, and that they intend to use popular support on Taiwan for political separation to advance notions of cultural and economic separation.

At the same time, polls indicate that most Taiwanese do not think that Taiwanese culture is or should be separate from Chinese culture, and efforts to remove the symbols of "China" can provoke very strong reaction from some sectors of society. Some elements of the Taiwanese society would even consider Taiwan to be the "true heir" to Chinese culture considering the degration and rejection conducted during the Cultural Revolution. In addition, many sectors of society, especially the business community, are wary of the efforts to reduce trade with mainland China.

This complex situation is perhaps best demonstrated when the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Taiwan is "not sovereign", provoking strong yet varying comments from both the pan-Green and pan-Blue coalitions. From the DPP's side, President Chen declared that "Taiwan is definitely a sovereign, independent country, a great country that absolutely does not belong to the People's Republic of China". The TSU, in addition to mocking Powell, questioned why United States sold weapons to Taiwan. From the KMT, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou announced that "the Republic of China has been a sovereign state ever since it was formed [in 1912]". James Soong called it "Taiwan's biggest failure in diplomacy".

While all parties concurred - something that has hardly ever happened in Taiwanese politics - on rebuking Powell's words, no one agreed with anyone else as to why Powell's words are unacceptable. The ruling DPP continued its policy that ROC is Taiwan and is a sovereign state, while TSU stuck to its radical pro-independence stance, with the KMT still supporting the Republic of China, and the People First Party maintaining the opinion that it is best to maintain the status quo as much as possible.

4 Significance

Domestically, the issue of independence has dominated Taiwanese politics for the past couple decades. This is also as grave issue for mainland China.

Internationally, this movement is also significant in that a formal declaration of independence is one of the three conditions under which the PRC has stated that it will take military action against Taiwan—the other two being that Taiwan refuse negotiations indefinitely, or if Taiwan is invaded and occupied by foreign countries. (Recently, the PRC also warned that if the situation in Taiwan becomes worse and spirals out of control, they will not look on "indifferently.") This would raise the possibility of an intervention by the United States under the Taiwan Relations Act and the possibility of a superpower conflict in East Asia.

It is also recently seen by Japan as one of the three situations in which another Sino-Japanese war would be triggered. Japan has evaluated that in event of Taiwanese independence, the PRC would launch a pre-emptive strike against Japan to prevent U.S. troops stationed there reinforcing Taiwan. The other two scenarios are: armed struggle for the resources in the Pacific and a PRC attack to regain the disputed islands between the two states.

5 Current status

In more recent years, with the existence of democratic and direct elections, the focus of the movement has changed to that of insuring the sovereignty and dignity of Taiwan against the possibility of rule by the People's Republic of China, and as such has been more willing to take on the symbols of the Republic of China. The movement has also moderated in recent years because of decreasing friction between "Mainlander" and "native" communities on Taiwan, increasing economic ties with mainland China, continuing threats by the People's Republic of China to invade if it declares independence, and doubts as to whether or not the United States would support a unilateral declaration of independence. Since the late 1990s, many supporters of Taiwan independence have argued that since Taiwan, as the ROC, is already independent from the mainland, a formal declaration of that fact is not urgent, and in 1998, the Democratic Progressive Party formalized this position in its party resolution.

After the October 10 speech by president Chen in 2004, support for independence reached new heights. Polls suggest that nearly 30% of Taiwanese residents now support independence, and an even higher percentage would support the construction of a Republic of Taiwan in 2008, as the final step after the proposed constitutional revisions in 2006. Support for One Country, Two Systems, the proposed solution by the PRC is between 5-7%. The majority (just below 60%) still support the status quo, which is to leave Taiwan's status exactly the way that it is and to leave the issue of whether to become independent or reunify for a future date. One advantage of this option is that it avoids the necessity of defining exactly what Taiwan's status really is.

6 See also

• Politics of Taiwan

Sovereignty movements Taiwan zh-min-nan:Tâi-oân tok-lip un-tong

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