N° 27 septembre 2022 The Chinese military maneuvers around the island of Taiwan have just ended. These very large-scale maneuvers are a response to the visit of the Democratic President of the American House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi to the island of Taiwan.
They have just resumed due to a visit by Democratic and Republican parliamentarians from the Senate and the House of Representatives. The visit of N. Pelosi is not a trivial fact given the stakes that the island represents with regard to questions of sovereignty for the People's Republic of China PRC and the economic and geopolitical interests of the region.
This visit marks the will to confront Beijing openly. She strongly annoyed Tokyo and Seoul who did not fail to let N. Pelosi know. These two capitals do not want to bear the brunt of a conflict between China and the USA. They are torn between pressure from the US to increase its military budget and to avoid upsetting Beijing. Because this visit, which is a provocation, gives China a pretext to militarize its foreign policy in what it considers to be its area of interest. The Chinese military has announced that naval and air patrols will be maintained.
To understand what is at stake in Taiwan, it is necessary to briefly review its history.
Before being Chinese, the island was populated by Austronesian populations organized into rival tribes. The Chinese who sought to establish themselves on the west coast from the 13th century were confronted with the hostility of these populations. The island was until the 16thcentury a trade zone between the empire of China and that of Japan. At the end of the 16th century, the Dutch East India Company set foot in Taiwan. It uses Chinese labor from the mainland to develop the cultivation of rice and sugar cane. This is the beginning of the Chinese establishment. The Chinese put an end to the Dutch presence in the 17th century. But the island whose interest was then marginal was integrated into the empire only in 1885. Until then the empire only controlled a limited fringe of the territory, the rest being under the domination of the aboriginal tribes. At the end of the first Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895), Taiwan was returned to victorious Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The occupation which lasted until 1945 deeply marked the island. While China does not fit into the modern world, Japan begins its transformation towards a capitalist industrial society. The policy of Japan was to assimilate the population of the island to integrate it into the Empire. Electrification was developed as well as the railway, the road network. All the villages were served by post and telegraph. Health centers were set up in towns and villages. Mixed marriages were allowed between Japanese and Chinese. The learning of Japanese was open to everyone. Japan's investment in primary and higher education raised the level of education. Several thousand Taiwanese students studied in Japanese universities. The Japanese colonizer exercised a discriminatory policy with regard to the indigenous populations. The development of infrastructures and the grabbing of land by private companies led to revolts which were repressed with cruelty. 200,000 Taiwanese were conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army, of which 30,000 were killed. The Cairo conference of 1he December 1943, in which China participated, confirmed by the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945, provided that Taiwan be returned to the Republic of China. The defeat of Japan led to the return of the island to the Republic of China on October 25, 1945.
Taiwan's Return to the Republic of China
The rulers of mainland China controlled by Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) viewed the Taiwanese as traitors who had fought on the side of Japan. Especially since the Taiwanese elites spoke Japanese and had a poor command of Mandarin. The administration of the island was ensured by continental Chinese who imported with them corruption. The simmering discontent exploded in February 1947, the day known as "Incident 228" was marked by a fierce repression which marked the beginning of the white terror which claimed between 10,000 and 30,000 deaths according to estimates. All requests from Taiwanese to participate in local institutions were rejected. The island was in insurrection, the martial law was proclaimed, it lasted 38 years until 1987. The army of the continent was called in reinforcement. The violence with which the Chinese government crushed the revolt was a founding element of Taiwanese identity and resentment towards the mainland. It gave substance to the feeling of independence, because the violence opposed the Taiwanese to the army but also to the newly arrived Chinese. In 1995 the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) issued a public apology to the families of the victims in the grounds of the 228 Peace Memorial.
The founding of the People's Republic of China in December 1949 marked the defeat of Chiang Kai-Shek and the KMT. The latter took refuge in Taiwan with more than 2 million soldiers, officials and supporters of the Kuomintang. Their arrival resulted in a stranglehold on the entire state and economic apparatus of the Island. Martial law is maintained, trade unions and parties are prohibited (except the KMT). For the Kuomintang, it is a question of assimilating a population which was only briefly part of the Chinese empire and which built a mixed culture with the Japanese identity and the indigenous populations. Any expression opposed to forced sinicization is assimilated to communist propaganda. On the death of Chiang Kai-Shek his son succeeded him who gradually loosened the noose set up by his father.
The Republic of China occupied China's seat at the UN until 1971, when the People's Republic of China was recognized as the sole legitimate representative. She became a member of the Security Council. The People's Republic of China considers Taiwan as one of its provinces and refuses any diplomatic relations with countries that recognize the Republic of China. This reality is accepted by the vast majority of States represented at the UN, including the United States, only about fifteen minor States maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan (1) .
For the United States, which gave its support to the Republic of China, hoping to make it a base to bring down the PRC, reality ended up convincing them that another approach was necessary and it accompanied the rapprochement of the two States. . Thus, US President Nixon mentioned in his inaugural address in January 1969 that the two countries were entering an era of negotiation after an era of confrontation. From the point of view of the United States, it was also a question of isolating the USSR.
Since that date, China-USA trade relations have grown and the capitalist development of China has made it a powerful potential adversary endangering the domination of the United States within the world capitalist system (2). China is even today officially qualified as "a systemic enemy of the USA" and their entire strategy is geared towards an economic and political weakening of China with a marked reorientation of its military efforts and its alliances in the Asia-Pacific zone. (3). As a result, Taiwan and its strait, particularly important in trade between Asia and the rest of the world, take on strategic importance in the struggle between the two greatest capitalist powers on the planet. The PRC, relying on its international recognition as the sole representative of China, intends to recover its sovereignty over Taiwan. A white paper explaining why and how it intends to take over this territory has recently been published. If he proposes a peaceful reunification as a priority, she does not hesitate to brandish the military threat against any desire for independence. The United States, which is very present militarily in the region, promises to defend Taiwan at all costs against what it describes as an aggression by the PRC,
After Ukraine, is a second front opening up in Asia around the question of Taiwan? This is a legitimate question when one measures the rise of confrontations within the imperialist system. We must be aware that such a prospect, if it were to become reality, would mean a world-wide war. The question posed is therefore about the united action of the peoples to prevent and prevent a new world war. From our point of view, by measuring that it is the development of capitalism that generates tensions by exacerbating competition for the realization of profit and the accumulation of capital on a global scale, we say that only the anti-capitalist struggle resolved to the national and international scale is likely to break the logic of war."proletarians of all countries unite"!
(1) In 1971 the General Assembly of the United Nations recognized the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China at the UN by adopting resolution No. 2758
(2) https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index .php/monde/monde/1460-le-centre-des-conflicts-au-sein-de-l-imperialisme-se-move-vers-la-zone-asie-pacifique
(3) https://www.sitecommunistes .org/index.php/monde/asie/1613-montee-des-tensions-en-mer-de-chine