Angel Jaramillo Torres
Within the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall sits a statue of the Taiwanese leader, overlooking a public square in one of Taipei’s busiest neighborhoods. Together with Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek is considered the founding father of the Republic of China. The leader’s statue reminds the visitor of another major monument: the Lincoln Memorial. This is not a coincidence. Chiang consciously sought to imitate Lincoln as the unifier of a nation torn by civil war, and it’s possible he wanted to imitate one of Washington, DC’s most famous landmarks.
Chiang Kai-shek’s civil war with Mao Zedong for control of China was one of the titanic events of the twentieth century. Although he was able to secure Taiwan’s autonomy vis-à-vis continental China, he was by no means an admirer of liberal democracy. An authoritarian outlook plagued his years in office. When he died in 1975, his son Chiang Ching-kuo—a classmate of Deng Xiaoping while in school in the Soviet Union—took over the leadership of the Kuomintang, the ruling party, and became president in 1978.
Although Chiang Ching-kuo is often credited with Taiwan’s democratization, it was his successor, Lee Teng-hui—an economist who studied at Cornell University— that consolidated liberal democracy in the country. One could compare his role to similar reformers like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore or Deng Xiaoping of China. However, Taiwan, unlike China and Singapore, has transitioned to a full-fledged multi-party democracy while maintaining its traditional values that blend Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. And it is precisely this adaptation of Chinese culture to modern democracy and economy that most likely has triggered China’s resentment and hostility against the island.
Today, Taiwan is at the center of the rising battle between the oldest modern democracy in the world, the United States, and China, a millennia-old civilization that decided last century to embrace Marxist communism as its political regime.
Taiwan is situated at a strategic juncture in world affairs, regardless of whether the United States and China are falling into what Harvard scholar Graham Allison calls the “Thucydides Trap.”
Tensions between Beijing and Taipei increased as a result of last January’s presidential elections in the island that put into power the Democratic Progressive Party candidate, Lai Ching-te, who ran on a platform inimical to the interests of Beijing, despite Xi Jinping’s efforts to support the Kuomintang. The DPP, nonetheless, was not able to hold the majority of the legislative Yuan by securing a coalition with the Taiwan People’s Party. Since then, Beijing has kept trying to sustain its efforts to gain some sway over Taiwan’s opposition parties in Congress.
At the moment, the United States and continental China have reopened a diplomatic channel through which presidents and high-ranking officials can sustain talks. The most recent meeting took place in Beijing last month, where the U.S. National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, met with top Chinese officials. The issue of Taiwan was discussed, and the Chinese government was adamant in maintaining that Taiwan is an integral part of its sovereign territory.
Taiwan has been losing the support of its former friends on the international and diplomatic front, primarily in Central America and the Pacific. Over the last five years, Nauru, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Kiribati have withdrawn diplomatic recognition of the Republic of China in favor of the People’s Republic. Only a diminishing number of small countries, including the Vatican and Paraguay, continue normal relations.
Taiwan consistently upholds the highest values that underpin the global liberal consensus, yet it remains largely unrecognized as an official member of the international community. This seems strange because Taiwan supports human rights, republicanism, and democracy on the world stage. It appears that when faced with real challenges, the so-called international community adopts a pragmatic stance, readily discarding its principles under even minimal political pressure from Beijing. Meanwhile, a powerful China has shown no signs of slowing in its efforts to erode Taiwan’s global standing, launching a diplomatic campaign immediately following the election of DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen in 2016.
The Taiwanese national security apparatus is keenly aware of the global geopolitical situation, especially Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. There is little doubt that Xi Jinping’s regime carefully considers the military scene in the Eastern European Plains. Should Putin’s Russia succeed in annexing Ukraine, the bosses in continental China might interpret this as a signal to consider engaging militarily with Taiwan.
Perhaps because of this, the Taiwanese government appointed the hawkish Wellington Koo Li-hsiung as the new Minister of National Defense. The first words of “the Iron Duke,” as Wellington is popularly known, bluntly asserted Taiwan’s power. Wellington is certainly attempting to modernize the nation’s army in preparation for a possible assault from China. He plans to do it by obtaining equipment and weapons so that the country can effectively fight asymmetric warfare.
In the meantime, Beijing continues to exert its power in the South China Sea, where it has been building artificial islands over the last decade.
Taiwan depends on its principal allies, Japan and the United States, to keep China at bay. Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida’s recent announcement that he will not seek to remain in office is not likely to alter Japan’s firm support for Taiwan. The same cannot be said regarding the U.S. government.
Recently, former President Donald Trump raised doubt over U.S. backing of Taiwan, which he criticized for supposedly robbing the United States of its semiconductor industry. Alternately, Kamala Harris has signaled that if she wins the presidency, she would continue Biden’s policies of full support of Taiwan in case Beijing resorts to offensive actions.
What is at stake in the Taiwan Strait is a peaceful Indo-Pacific and the continued existence of an alternative China: one that is democratic, law-abiding, liberal, and friendly. The time may have come for the nations of the world to recognize Taiwan as a full-fledged member of the international community since it would be a diplomatic and political mistake to sideline an ally of the best causes of humanity.
Angel Jaramillo Torres holds a BA in International Relations at El Colegio de México and a PhD in Political Science at the New School for Social Research. He is co-editor of the two-volume series Trump and Political Philosophy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). His journalistic work has been published in Spanish and English outlets. He resides in México City. He recently returned from a ROC-sponsored trip to Taiwan with a group of scholars.
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