Why China and the US are at odds over Taiwan | Start Here

[Applause] let's talk about taiwan and the taiwan strait because right now these waters aren't exactly calm u.s ships have been transiting the strait monthly angering beijing china sending nearly 150 warplanes into taiwan's air defense zone forcing taiwan's fighter jets to scramble with taiwan caught in a kind of tug of war between the u.s and china there are genuine fears about where this could all end up the only way that the us and china would go to war would be over taiwan so why is taiwan such a flashpoint between two of the world's biggest powers why is the island not officially considered a country and what do microchips have to do with it all [Music] taiwan is an island stuck in a kind of political limbo it's a democratic self-governing territory just over the water is china which claims taiwan as its own but many taiwanese take issue with that then you add in the u.s which has taken on the role of neighborhood cop and you end up with taiwan as the focus for many big competing interests but to understand how we got here you have to know the back story taiwan was ruled by imperial china for 200 years then japan had it for 50 years after winning a war against china but when japan lost in world war ii china one of the victors got taiwan back again then you had the chinese civil war mao zedong's communist forces took over the mainland while the other side the nationalist forces of chiang kai-shek escaped to taiwan so in 1949 china sort of split in two and you had two rival governments one in taiwan one in beijing both claiming they were the true government of china the site in taiwan was known as the republic of china the roc and that's still the island's official name today and on the mainland the communist party declared a brand new chinese state the people's republic of china prc for short now remember the u.s wasn't exactly a fan of communism and so it was the roc in taiwan that mostly got the international recognition including a seat at the u.n but by the 1970s that seat didn't really make sense anymore the un passed a resolution confirming the representatives from the prc as the only lawful representatives of china to the united nations and so the roc was out we have been deserted we have been forsaken so what does all this mean for taiwan's political status today well it leaves it in that limbo we talked about at the beginning now from beijing's perspective it's pretty clear china is one country and taiwan is part of it right now the island governs itself but beijing's position is that eventually it'll be reunited with the mainland and lately chinese president xi jinping has been emphasizing that a lot and linking it to his big policy known as national rejuvenation so what about taiwan's status according to taiwan well the president saying gwen and her party have never fully accepted the idea that taiwan is a part of china but at the same time they're not explicitly pushing for taiwan to be recognized as independent it is a bit of a fudge really they say that taiwan is effectively independent so they just want things to stay the way they are woman okay so what about the us well their position is also a bit of a fudge it even has an official name strategic ambiguity on the one hand they do acknowledge that taiwan is a part of china and not an independent country there's no official u.s embassy in taipei for example but on the other hand they sort of want china to leave taiwan alone and the u.s has suggested they would defend taiwan militarily in certain circumstances there are reports that the united states has made clear to china that it would defend taiwan if chinese attack is unprovoked and on the flip side that it's made clear to taiwan that it will not come to taiwan's aid if the chinese attack is provoked so that's the big picture if things spin out of control we could potentially be talking about a war between the us and china it means that when things are tense around taiwan it's a big deal and things have been getting tense [Music] under president donald trump the u.s got a lot cozier with taiwan than previous presidents and biden's administration has effectively continued in the same direction over in taiwan the political climate shifted in 2016 when president xienguin took over from a pro-beijing president she's been pretty outspoken against beijing and the question of taiwan's status has taken on new significance after people in taiwan saw what china did in hong kong the people of taiwan so what they treated hong kong we just realized that their promises it's not something we can trust hong kong has been completely absorbed into china the last remaining piece that is missing is taiwan then you add the fact that both taiwan and china are expanding their military so when we see headlines about china flying 150 warplanes near taiwan and the u.s according to this wall street journal report secretly deploying troops there well it's no small thing the potential for war does exist i do not think it is very high but i do believe it is growing and there are a few other factors that raise the stakes even higher when we're talking about taiwan first up its location it sits in what's called the first island chain in the western pacific that extends to japan in the north all the way down to indonesia in the south going through the philippines and so if china were to take over taiwan and deploy pla forces on taiwan that would truly pose an existential threat to japan and japan of course is a very important ally of the united states then there are those microchips we mentioned earlier taiwan is a world leader when it comes to semiconductor technology the tiny chips that the world has come to rely on they're in everything from smartphones to aircraft as far as the smallest most advanced ships go around 90 percent of them are made in taiwan this actually is a capability that china is aspiring to and so then there's this very important question of what would happen um if china controlled that production the other big thing about taiwan is that it acts as a kind of lightning rod for the big political rivalry between the us and china and how they see themselves and each other for the chinese perspective it just seems like king of the mountain the us uh is the most powerful economic military and political uh country in the world and they want to stay that way taiwan is now a mature and vibrant democracy and the united states has a long-standing commitment um to protecting and advancing democracy let's not forget about the 24 million people who live there a recent poll suggests around 10 of taiwanese say they want unification with china at some point 34 say they want independence at some point but a majority 51 percent say they simply want to keep things the way they are forever most people believe that the best scenario for taiwan for the the short run at least is just kicking the can down the road helping taiwan to preserve its freedoms continue to have economic prosperity having a limited voice in the international community but being able uh to essentially be an autonomous entity things with taiwan might be ambiguous but maybe it's better that way maybe taiwan is an example where doing nothing is actually the best option if you found that useful and want to know more about what's going on in the region watch our episode on the south china sea see you next week [Music]

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 392,896

Keywords: taiwan, taiwan president, tsai ing-wen, taiwan china, xi jinping, china taiwan, taiwan tensions with china, china-taiwan tensions, taiwan air force, taiwan military drills, taiwan china war, united states, taiwan china conflict, trouble taiwan, al jazeera, al jazeera china, al jazeera video cyprus, taiwan news, taiwan military, taiwan china news, china taiwan relations, china taiwan war, china threat taiwan, china us taiwan, china taiwan usa, start here al jazeera

Id: k6Dh26a8u6w

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 08 2021