Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: China-Taiwan Conflict)

Why in news?

On 16th November, 2021 President Joe Biden of USA & Chinese President Xi Jinping met for three and a half hours, virtually. Chinese state media reported Xi told Biden” It is playing with fire, you will get burned.” The statement shows the extreme Chinese aggression towards Taiwan.

When Japan invaded China in 1937, the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Tse-tung, and the Nationalists, led by General Chiang Kai-shek, formed an uneasy alliance against the Japanese.
With the defeat of Japan by Allied troops in 1945, fighting between the Communists and Nationalists flared once more, and soon China was engulfed in a bloody, all-out civil war.
As the Communist forces headed for victory, Chiang began to shift troops and gold reserves to the island of Taiwan, 100 miles off the Chinese mainland.
Two months after the inauguration of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing on October 1, 1949, Chiang and the Nationalists installed the rival Republic of China (ROC) as a government in exile on Taiwan. Each claimed to be the sole, legitimate government of all of China.

In 1954-55, and in 1958, the PRC bombed the Jinmen, Mazu, and Dachen islands under Taiwan’s control, drawing in the US.
US Congress passed the Formosa Resolution, which authorised President Eisenhower to defend RoC territory.
In 1995-96, China began testing missiles in the seas around Taiwan, triggering the biggest US troop mobilisation in the region since the Vietnam War.

No. China rejects Taiwan’s participation as a member in UN agencies and other international organizations.
Taipei regularly protests its exclusion; the United States also pushes for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in such organizations.
Taiwan hold member status in more than forty organisations, most of them regional, such as the Asian Development Bank and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the World Trade Organization etc.

Only fifteen states maintain official diplomatic ties withTaiwan. No government has ever simultaneously maintained formal diplomatic ties with both China and Taiwan.

Standoffs with china from the last summer are pushing India to reconsider its One China policy.
Tibet card also needs attention and implementation
India has developed more robust relations with Taiwan to send a message to china
India and Taiwan currently maintain “trade and cultural exchange” offices in each other’s capitals
Taiwan & India are finalising a deal for $7.5-billion semiconductor or chip manufacturing plant to India

Most people in Taiwan support maintaining the status quo.
A small number support immediate independence, according to opinion polls conducted by National Chengchi University.
Even fewer expressed support for the unification of Taiwan with China.
An overwhelming majority reject a “one country, two systems” model, a sentiment that has grown as Beijing cracks down on Hong Kong’s freedoms.

In 2016, Taiwan’s current president Tsai Ing-wen was elected. She leads the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which leans towards eventual official independence from China.
Ms Tsai won a second term in 2020. By that time Hong Kong had seen months of unrest, with protesters demonstrating against the mainland’s increasing influence.
Last year, amid worsening US-China relations over Covid and trade, the State Department sent its highest ranking delegation yet to Taipei.
In October 2020, President Xi Jinping asked the PLA to prepare for war, triggering alarm in Taiwan
The Biden Administration, which has declared “rock solid” commitment to Taiwan, Taipei raised an alert about an incursion by Chinese warplanes.