China-Taiwan Relations:

China-Taiwan relations are not good. China sent over 30 jets to the territory of Taiwan and raised tensions in the region. Out of these 30 jets, 20 are fighter planes. It is not the first time that China has invaded the territory of Taiwan; several similar incidents have taken place since 2021.

Many experts predict that in the coming years China could attack Taiwan. Taiwan is not as big as China in terms of size, economy, and military, but Taiwan’s power can not be overlooked.

Over the years, Taiwan developed a lot. Taiwan ranks 10th in terms of economies in the world. According to the Global Firepower Index, Taiwan is at the 21st rank in terms of military.

Taiwan is a tiny island nation to the east of China in the Pacific Ocean. The Prime Minister of Taiwan is Tsai Ing-wen. The capital city of Taiwan is Taipei.

The Reason For Controversial China-Taiwan Relations is-

In the 1st Sino-Japanese War from 1894-1895, Japan won this war. Under the treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, the Sino-Japanese war came to an end and Japan captured the Korean peninsula, Eastern China and Taiwan. After this war, China was divided into different dynasties.

But Sun Yat-sen, a Chinese leader, had the aim of unifying the country. He was the founder of Kuomintang Party in 1912. After the death of Sun Yat-Sen in 1925, the Kuomintang party was led by Chiang Kai-Shek. Mao Zedong founded another party called Communist Party in 1921.

Shanghai Massacre –

Shanghai Massacre is responsible for bitter China-Taiwan relations. Chiang Kai-Shek wanted to surpass the power of Communist party in China, so in 1927 thousand of communist members were arrested, tortured and killed. This incident was known as the Shanghai Massacre. After this, the Civil War started in China.

After World War 2 Japan was in a very weak position, so it returned to China the captured areas like eastern China and Taiwan.

The communist party from 1946-48, with the help of the Russian communist party, attacked the nationalist leaders and forced them to flee to Formosa, present day Taiwan.

In 1949, Mainland China declared itself the Communist country and renamed it the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The nationalist party renamed Formosa or Taiwan as Republic of China (ROC).

So the Civil War started in 1927, ended in 1949. This war was also responsible for bitter China-Taiwan relations.

Meaning of ‘One China’ Policy-

Basically it was the USA’s Policy. Under this policy, the US established formal and diplomatic relations with China (PRC) in 1979 and cut all formal relations with Taiwan (ROC) and maintained only informal relations.

According to this Policy, it is compulsory for the countries and the companies who want to do trade with China that they cut all their formal ties with Taiwan as there is only one China. This policy is one of the reasons that there is tension between China-Taiwan relations.

This policy considers Taiwan as part of mainland China. The United Nations also from 1971 gave recognition to Mainland China (PRC) rather than Taiwan (ROC).

Formal Allies of Taiwan –

At present, only 14 countries have formal relations with Taiwan. These countries are either Island countries or very small countries. These are-

➔ Palau 

➔ Tuvalu 

➔ Paraguay 

➔ The Marshall Islands 

➔ Saint Kitts and Nevis 

➔ Saint Lucia 

➔ Saint Vincent 

➔ Honduras 

➔ Haiti 

➔ Belize 

➔ Swaziland 

➔ Nauru 

➔ Guatemala

➔ Vatican City 

The Reasons for China to Invade Taiwan-

➢ China always follows an expansionist policy, whether it’s Taiwan, Hong Kong, Aksai-chin of Ladakh, Doklam of Bhutan, or Tibet. China considers Taiwan as its part and wants to capture it at any cost.

➢ Taiwan is a hub for the manufacturing of semiconductors. Major economies are dependent on Taiwan for the supply of semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the largest company in the world manufacturing Semiconductors.

Semiconductors are used in electrical devices like-

• Television
• Mobile phones
• Automobiles
• Computers

➢ Taiwan is also a technological powerhouse and a major partner in global supply chains. Companies like Quanta and Foxconn are the backbone of Taiwan’s economy.

➢  It is one of the 4 Asian Tigers. Asian Tiger is a group of export-driven and high growth economies, that is South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

➢ From a strategic point of view, Taiwan is important to China. China can control the activities of Japan, Australia, South Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, and can limit the influence of QUAD in the Pacific Ocean. So all these reasons are major factors responsible for bitter China-Taiwan relations.

USA Support to Taiwan-

However, it will not be easy for China to attack Taiwan as the USA always backed Taiwan and warned China that it would have to face consequences of attack.

The Russia-Ukraine War is a lesson for bitter China-Taiwan relations.

1. China can’t underestimate the power of Taiwan as Russia did for Ukraine. 
2. Taiwan can’t fully depend on the USA for protection of its sovereignty as Ukraine did.

So we can conclude that China-Taiwan relations are not so smooth. There are different reasons as we discussed above.