"Even after five decades of separation and despite their vastly different political and social systems, Taiwan and mainland China share the common goal of eventually reunifying China under freedom, democracy, and equitable prosperity" (cited in A Model of Stability and Prosperity, www.gio.gov.tw). In order to discuss the unification of China, we have to look into the history of Taiwan, the reasons how the conflicts happened and why China was divided into two parts, and the effects of present political parties in Taiwan.

For the history of Taiwan, we have to discuss through the people, the colonization, the economic growth, and the international relations.  

Thomas A. Metzger and Ramon H. Myers wrote in The Pacific Review that "Two events brought history to Taiwan: the expansion of Europe bringing Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch to Taiwan around 1600; and a population explosion in China in 1700" (Metzger & Myers 1989:298).

Firstly, Jon A. Teta in his book, Taiwan, said the first Europeans came upon Taiwan were Portuguese in 1590, however, they left soon after establishing a settlement in the north. The next Europeans to occupy Taiwan were the Dutch. The Dutch East Indies Company arrived at a port near present-day Tainan in 1624. They opened trading posts, introduced Protestantism, and encouraged the planting of sugar cane and producing camphor. In 1626, another Europeans party came, they were the Spaniards. They landed at Keelung in the north, where they built Fort San Salvador and, at Tanshui, they built Fort San Domingo. The Dutch in southern Taiwan made many attempts to drive the Spaniards out of the north. Finally, the Dutch's conquest was success in 1650. Since the Taiwanese farmers were mistreated by the Dutch, they revolted against the Dutch in September 1652. Although the rebellions were violently suppressed by the Dutch, there were two results: Dutch rule soon came to an end and the rebellions showed the nationalism of the Taiwanese. The reason why the Europeans wanted to occupy Taiwan was Taiwan's importance as a gateway to the seven provinces along the southeastern coast of China and the access to Japan, and the other Southeast Asia countries (Teta 1971:19).

For the history of Taiwan's population explosion, John F. Copper's in his book, Taiwan-Nation-State or Province, said that there were aborigines in Taiwan. They were considered to be of Indonesian or Malayan origin, were divided into nine major tribes. When Chinese immigrants arrived more than a thousand years ago, they identified two types of aborigines: one sedentary group that lived in the lowland areas and practiced agriculture; another that lived in the mountains and survived by hunting and fishing. In 1989, the total numbers of aborigines were only 332,000 (1.63% of the total population) and most of them were assimilated into the mainstream of Chinese culture. Chinese settlement in Taiwan dates back as far as the 12th century, but large-scale immigration did not begin until the 17th century during the period of Dutch administration. The first Chinese arrivals to Taiwan were the Hakkas, who came from Kwangtung Province in the southern China. During the Ming dynasty, Chinese from Fukien Province, directly across the Taiwan Strait, migrated to Taiwan. The fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 brought a major wave of migration from Fukien Province to Taiwan. The Fukien Chinese later called the Hakkas "strangers" and the aborigines "mountain people" (Copper 1990:7). In addition, after the Ming dynasty was overthrown by the Manchus, a Ming loyalist, the famous Koxinga, threw out the Dutch and established a regime in Taiwan in 1662 and hoped to use it as a base for mainland recovery. Until 1684, the Ch'ing dynasty defeated this Ming outpost and turned Taiwan into a regular Chinese prefecture (Metzger & Myers 1989:298).

Despite the decisive Manchu victory in Taiwan, the resistance of the Chinese people against the "foreign" rulers continued underground. Secret societies were organized both on the island and in the mainland (cited in History of Taiwan, www.gio.gov.tw). Taiwan was ruled by Ch'ing dynasty starting from 1684. In 1885, the Ch'ing dynasty made Taiwan its 22nd province. The following year, Liu Ming-chuan was appointed the first governor of Taiwan. Until 1895, China lost the war with Japan and signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China ceded Taiwan to Japan. Japan became the ruler of Taiwan (Copper 1990:22). Although Japanese contributed the prosperity to Taiwan by various kinds of development, resistance against "alien" rule never ceased on the island. The Tapani Incident, the largest-ever revolt organized by Taiwan residents, in 1915 killed more than 10,000 local Taiwanese, marking down a turning point in Taiwan's resistance against Japanese rule (cited in History of Taiwan, www.gio.gov.tw). Once again, the above two incidents showed a great nationalism of the Taiwanese.

Many changes had occurred on the mainland during the period of Japan's control of Taiwan. The Hsin-hai Revolution broke out on October 10, 1911 in the triple city of Wuhan against the Manchu dynasty. The outcome was the ending of China's two-thousand-year-old system of imperial rule, and the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). According to Hungdah Chiu in the book China-Seventy Years after the 1911 Hsin-hai Revolution, "This revolution has a unique place in Chinese history. Not only did it emancipate the Chinese nation from the imperial rule of Manchu minority people, but it also made China the first country in Asia to establish a republican form of government" (Chiu 1984:Introduction). Dr. Sun Yat-sen founded this republic based on his "Three Principles of the People": Nationalism, Democracy and the People's Livelihood" (Facts and Figure 1989:3). According to Ling Yu in his book, Taiwan, the "Three Principles of the People" became the basis of the Nationalist party or Kuomintang (KMT). The republic, however, was not very stable in its early years. Yuan Shi-kai and a group of warlords (military commanders) controlled the north of China. In order to unite all of China, the Kuomintang worked with the leaders of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), which was established in 1921. In 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen died and he left the completion of unification to his successor, Chiang Kai-shek. In 1927, Chiang brought the warlords under his authority. Soon afterward, he and the Nationalists broke relations with the CCP. The conflicts between KMT and CCP began. The main reason was that the CCP tried to set up a rival government. In addition, the CCP promised to introduce land reform and unionization gained advantages over the KMT's popularity (Yu 1992:33-35).

Finally, the Chinese communists, who had rebelled against the National Government, established a provisional Soviet "government" in Jiangxi on November 7, 1931, and created 15 rural bases in central China. The communists were led by Mao Ze-dong, Zhu De, Zhou En-lai, and Lin Biao. By the mid-1936, the Japanese seized China's northeastern part. The communist leaders suggested that the Nationalist Government should fight the Japanese instead of the communist armies. The Nationalist Government, however, argued that the communists must capitulate to central authority but the communists objected. Therefore, Chiang carried out the anti-communist campaign and ordered the Northeastern Army Commander, Chang Hsueh-liang, to attack the communists. However, Chang disobeyed the order. When Chiang Kai-shek flew to Xian on December 12, 1936, to confront Chang Hsueh-liang, he was arrested by Chang's army subordinates. After a series of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Chang freed Chiang Kai-shek. This incident was a severe setback to Chiang's efforts to subjugate the communists and the degree of conflicts between the KMT and CCP increased dramatically. On July 7, 1937, the Sino-Japanese War began. The two groups achieved an uneasy truce in order to defeat the Japanese (cited in The Birth of New China, www.gio.gov.tw).

Hungdah Chiu in his book, China and the Question of Taiwan stated "In the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, the United States reached an agreement with Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek providing that Taiwan and other territories taken by Japan would be returned to China" (Chiu 1973:23). On October 25, 1945, Taiwan was formally restored to the Republic of China and Chiang Kai-shek appointed Ch'en Yi as the Governor-General of Taiwan. Taiwan officially became a part of the Republic of China (Chiu 1973:23). At the same time, many of the mainland Chinese soldiers were sent to Taiwan but they could not communicate with the Taiwanese. On the other hand, the Nationalist regime came to be seen by many Taiwanese as a carpetbagger government, they found that Nationalist rule was not better than its predecessor. Moreover, there were rumors spread that Nationalist soldiers brought diseases such as epidemics of cholera and bubonic plague to Taiwan. There were conflict between the originally Taiwanese and the Nationalists. The ill feelings between the two groups came to a head on February 28, 1947, when plainclothes police officers killed a Taiwanese woman who had been selling black-market cigarettes to make a living. A mob formed, and police fired into the crowd. Widespread rebellion erupted. Governor-General Chen Yi treated these people as a pro-Communist rebellion. Thus, on March 8, 1947, he ordered a large contingent of Nationalist troops with heavy weapons to kill several thousand Taiwanese including the core of Taiwan's local political leadership (Copper 1991:26-27). This made the Taiwanese hostile to the Nationalists.

On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was established with its capital at Peking (Chiu 1984:44). In late 1949, Chiang Kai-shek's forces were defeated by the Communists on the mainland, and he and a large portion of his army and government fled to Taiwan, where they hoped to regroup and counter-attack. In addition, 2 million of people followed Chiang to Taiwan. These people or their generations eventually become important political parties nowadays. Despite Taiwanese's dislike of the mainland Chinese and the Nationalist government, most Taiwanese saw no realistic choice but to accept Nationalist rule. On the other hand, Mao Tse-tung planned to invade Taiwan in 1950. But the United States sent the Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Strait to shield Taiwan from invasion. The Nationalist took advantage of the respite. Moreover, the Nationalists had learned a bitter but valuable lesson from their defeat by the Communists. They were ready to undertake reform and govern Taiwan honestly and efficiently. At this point, the Civil War was ended and the Nationalist government for the first time in more than a decade enjoyed peace. Chiang Kai-shek began to reform and develop Taiwan regarding the land and economic and both developments were overseen by U.S. aid advisers. Because of its economic and military dependence on the United States and its adamant stance against communism, Nationalist China became a member of the Western bloc. The United States both protected Taiwan and prevented the Nationalists from trying to destabilize Mao's government. Keeping both sides apart and keeping the peace was the goal of the United States at that time. Although keeping peace was good, it served another meaning as blocking efforts to unify China. Otherwise, if wars had occurred, China might be unified already (Copper 1990:27-29).

This was the history of Taiwan's people, its colonization, and the reasons how the conflicts happened and why China was divided into two parts.

Now, we have to discuss the economic growth of Taiwan. "Until 1949, Taiwan's economy was largely agricultural. Most of the people worked as farmers, and many of the industrial buildings that did exist were bombed during World War II" (Yu 1992:53). "As the Civil War ended, with the aid of the United States, Taiwan started to develop the industrial economy. The transition to an industrialized economy started with a Four-Year Economic Development Plan in 1953; the fifth development plan was completed in 1969" (Teta 1971:56). By the mid-1960s, after some years of peace and growth, Taiwan was poised for an economic surge. Industrial production was three times that in 1953. The Nationalist rule had made Taiwan more prosperous than it had ever been. In 1964, U.S. aids to Taiwan stopped. Simultaneously, Taiwan's economy soared, climbing to become the world's fastest-growing economy region. Meanwhile, economic growth in China stagnated, and as the standards of living on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait widened, so too did the separation between the "two Chinas" (Copper 1990:30). Because of the economic growth, Taiwan was able to purchase fuel and modern weaponry to arm the large Taiwan army (Yu 1992:57). In 1989, Taiwan is the world's 14th largest trading region and the fifth largest trading partner of the United States. It also has become known as one of Asia's four "dragons"-the others being Hongkong, Singapore, and South Korea (Facts and Figure 1989:14). On the other hand, "As economic well-being increased, Taiwanese alienation to mainland China decreased. Prosperity also brought a greater and permanent separation from China" (Copper 1990:29).

For the international relations, although Taiwan has experienced a series of setbacks since withdrawing from the United Nations in 1971, Taiwan played an active role in the international community. Among all the international relations, the United States has a special relationship with Taiwan. "Current relations between the United States and Taiwan are based on the Taiwan Relations Act established on April 10, 1978, which provides a framework for unofficial relations between Taiwan and the United States. This act calls for the U.S. to supply Taiwan with the weapons necessary for its defense" (Facts and Figure 1989:46-50).

On September 7,1999, Tse Suk-lai, Assistant Secretary of the State Department Asian Affairs of the United States, said in the World Journal that mainland China could follow the "One China, two systems" in Hongkong, and develop a new "One China, three systems" for Taiwan (World Journal 9/7/1999). In addition, the United States made a clear statement at the United Nations Conference on September 16, 1999 that the United States only recognized "One China", that was the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan was a part of China (World Journal 9/17/1999).

The United Nations also recognizes Taiwan as a part of mainland China but with different policy and they do not want to see any wars happened in the Taiwan Strait. Due to Taiwan's special international relations especially with the United States, unification of China can not be easily done. In addition, the desire of unification of China was not that strong in the past few decades because Hongkong and Macau were still controlled by the United Kingdom and Portugal respectively. By July 1997, Hongkong was back to China. Macau will also be back to China by the end of 1999. Therefore, PRC President Jiang's desire of China unification is very strong.

Finally, we have to discuss the present political parties in Taiwan and how they affect the unification of China.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, there are currently 84 registered political parties in Taiwan. However, among those, only the Kuomintang (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the New Party (NP) are really influential. In the presidential and vice presidential election held in 1996. The KMT's Lee Teng-hui and Lien Chan won 54% of the vote, while the candidates of DPP and NP won 21% and 15% respectively. Thus, Taiwan's politics have evolved from a single dominant party-KMT to two parties-KMT and DPP and now to the current three parties-KMT, DPP and NP (cited in The Growth of Democracy, www.gio.gov.tw).

The current ruling party of Taiwan is the KMT, also known as the Nationalist Party. It formed on November 24, 1894, currently has approximately 2.1 million members. The DPP formed on September 28, 1986, now has approximately 150,000 members. The party's organizational structure closely resembles that of the KMT but the DPP has incorporated Taiwan independence into its official platform in the early stage. Nevertheless, in more recent elections, the mainstream DPP leadership has tended to downplay the party's independence theme. It led to dissatisfaction among the more radical advocates of independence for Taiwan. Several of these disaffected DPP members thus left the party and established the Taiwan Independence Party (TAIP) on December 10, 1996. Another main political party-New Party (NP)-was formed in August 1993 by a group of KMT "Young Turks", the goal of the NP is to attract voters who are dissatisfied with the performance of the ruling KMT and opposed to the DPP's advocacy of Taiwan independence. The NP now has nearly 70,000 members NP (cited in Political Parties, www.gio.gov.tw). Whether the TAIP will become another viable party in Taiwan political arena or any other parties will replace the ruling KMT remains to be seen, but it shows that Taiwan is in a danger of disintegration. In addition to the conflicts and competition between Taiwan's political parties, it seems that the nationalism has disappeared in some people's mind. If those people still remember the Article 1 of Constitution of the Republic of China, "The Republic of China, found on the Three Principles of the People, shall be a democratic republic of the people, to be governed by the people, and for the people" (cited in The Constitution, www.gio.gov.tw) and understand that there is only "one China", a politic and peaceful unification of China will be easily achieved.

The political development of Taiwan has attracted widespread attention and given rise to much discussion in the international community. Not only that, as a conclusion, in The Growth of Democracy, it said:

Economic prosperity and democracy are two common objectives of humanity. Therefore, Taiwan experience has not only brought prosperity and democracy to the Taiwan area, thus enabling people on Taiwan to enjoy the most prosperous and liberal way of life in Chinese history; it also serves as a model for other developing areas, including the Chinese mainland. If the dictatorial system of the Chinese communists can undergo similar transformation through economic development so that they too stride toward liberalization and democracy, it will help lay the groundwork for future reunification of the two sides and further promote regional stability and world peace. Certainly, the world would rejoice in such a development.

Although all Chinese believe that there will be a reunification, they want it in a peaceful way only. Should the communists understand the above theory, not only the Chinese but also the world would like to join the pleasure of China unification.

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