Gravitas Plus: Explained: The China-Taiwan conflict

if you've been following the news you couldn't have possibly missed the big story from taiwan u.s house speaker nancy pelosi visited the island china responded with military drills it fired ballistic missiles towards taiwan and repeatedly rehearsed the assault of taiwan when the world protested china turned around and said this is beijing's internal matter what is it what explains china's obsession with taiwan we'll discuss on this episode of gravitas plus hello i'm palki sharma and this is taiwan it is an island in the south china sea it is around 36 000 square kilometers taiwan is roughly 161 kilometers from mainland china the two are separated by the taiwan strait zoom out and you will see the philippines south korea brunei vietnam and japan all of them a stone's throw away from taiwan so why is it only china that is obsessed with this little island taiwan first appeared in chinese records during the zhou dynasty the emperor had sent an expedition and the explorer spotted taiwan this is china's side of the story in the 1600s taiwan became a dutch colony portuguese sailors called taiwan ila formosa meaning beautiful island the dutch rule lasted from 1624 to 1661. in 1683 taiwan came under china this was during the qing dynasty in the years that followed a lot of chinese migrated to taiwan they were mostly hakka chinese this chinese rule lasted until 1895 because in 1895 china lost the first sino-japanese war taiwan had to be given away to japan decades later when japan lost the second world war taiwan was up for grabs again and china was on the winning side then it was called the republic of china or roc so the roc jumped at the idea of controlling taiwan it had the blessings of the u.s and britain but the republic of china or roc was a mess it was a military dictatorship chiang kai-shek was its leader he led a nationalist party called the komintang he ruled china with an iron fist under him there was unrest unhappiness and a civil war it was at this time that communist leader mao zedong became increasingly popular his red army fought chiang's party mao won in 1949 he established the people's republic of china or the prc chiang fled to taiwan the island had a subtropical climate abundant resources and advanced infrastructure built by the japanese also taiwan was free of communist influence and chiang did not move to taiwan alone along with him moved one and a half million people the roc's air force artifacts from the national palace museum the national central library the national central museum the beijing library fuel and ammunition radio stations boats clothes cars wood some 774 boxes of gold basically chiang took all that he could take from china he established a government in exile in taiwan and then he declared martial law by the 1950s there were two chinas chiang's military dictatorship in taiwan called the roc or the republic of china and mao's communist china called the prc or the people's republic of china roc prc both claim to be the real china a battle for international recognition and legitimacy followed taiwan held the roc seat at the united nations western countries recognized taiwan as the only china in 1954 the first taiwan strait crisis broke out here's what happened chiang put thousands of troops on two taiwanese islands kin men and matsu mao china responded by bombing these islands four years later another crisis broke out mao's men again bombed kin-min and matsu they wanted to dislodge the roc troops chiang's troops amid this military tension taiwan's economy grew between 1960 and 1980 taiwan saw an economic boom workers were exploited there was military rule exports grew this was the era of made in taiwan but soon taiwan's luck ran out you see the cold war was bubbling and mouse china became strategically important to the u.s and with american priorities it seemed like the world's priorities had changed too in 1971 the united nations chose to recognize beijing as the real china they dumped taiwan chiang kai-shek died in 1975. one year later mao zedong died too then xiaoping became the leader of china he began opening china to the world over the next 10 years relations improved between china and taiwan people were allowed to visit families on either side trade across the strait also improved but as economic ties deepened so did cultural divisions they became worse people in taiwan began identifying as taiwanese not chinese a meeting was held in hong kong in 1992 the two sides beijing and taipei agreed on one china but the problem is it was a verbal consensus and its interpretation varied first let me tell you the chinese communist party's version one china means the two sides of the strait belong to one china and this china is ruled by beijing and they'll work together to seek national reunification this is beijing's view but taiwan understood it differently also remember while china is ruled by the communist party taiwan is an actual democracy with multiple parties so in the year 2000 taiwan elected chen sui ban as its president now he was from the democratic people's party and this party openly backed taiwanese independence china was not prepared for the surprise so beijing passed a new law the anti-secession law it basically said that china could use force to keep taiwan in 2014 tens of thousands of students gathered in front of the taiwanese parliament they began protesting the ratification of a trade agreement with china the students cried we demand transparency because taiwan is a democracy this was the start of what's called the sunflower movement and this was the first open protest against china it was a new dawn for taiwan but china held on to its reunification demand in 2013 xi jinping became president he revealed his china dream he wanted to revive china's historical glory she is pitched for taiwan hinges on the idea of one country two systems taiwan does not really buy china's promises it wants to remain a democracy and sai england's election is proof she campaigned on the idea of transparency she's from the democratic progressive party she is critical of china she was elected president in 2016 and reelected in 2020 with the record 8.2 million votes today taiwan is a self-ruled island it has its own flag its own anthem its own currency its own institutions taiwan's per capita gdp is more than 33 000 it is a chip superpower the world's chip factory but taiwan's legal status is still unclear only 14 countries recognize taiwan china sees taiwan as a renegade province a breakaway province xi jinping says taiwan must be and will be reunited with china you could say the whole purpose of his regime is what he calls the great rejuvenation of the chinese nation the unification of taiwan and she wants this done by 2049 because that is when the people's republic of china will celebrate its 100th anniversary 2049 and she wants to do what mao could not what neither deng xiaoping nor who jintao could do he wants to be china's greatest leader and for that he must take taiwan under xi jinping china has forced countries to shun taiwan to stick to the one china policy to set up embassies in china not in taiwan companies have been asked to list taiwan as a part of china on their websites what is china's basis for claiming taiwan one history to the 1992 consensus but there's no real consensus on what the 1992 consensus really was also should taiwan's future be a victim of its past taiwan has moved on today it is a dynamic and pluralistic society it boasts of the world's first transgender cabinet minister the first country in the region to legalize same-sex marriage in 2021 taiwan was ranked the world's eighth most democratic country 62 percent of the island's residents regard themselves as exclusively taiwanese only three percent consider themselves chinese in 1994 that number was 26 percent today taiwan has its own sense of identity one that could not be more different from authoritarian china xi jinping does not agree he says independence will only bring hardship but what about the taiwanese people what do they want 5.2 percent want independence as soon as possible only 1.3 percent are in favor of reunification what about the rest of them they want to maintain status quo but look at china's military moves status quo is evidently not an option anymore [Music] you

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Id: I7MDn4etRuM

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 06 2022