A curiosity I've encountered since my return to the US from China is people from Taiwan or of Taiwanese descent asserting that Taiwan is not part of China, but a separate country, while its people constitute a nation apart from the Chinese, much as the Japanese and Koreans do.
The Facebook group, "Face it - Taiwan is not a part of China," uses the arguments that Taiwan is not ruled by the People's Republic of China and that "most people say 'China' to mean not the cultural entity, but the People's Republic of China," referring to the government that rules the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau.
Taiwan is not a country. There is no such thing as the "Taiwanese government" or the "Republic of Taiwan."
No country recognizes Taiwan as an independent state. Rather, a handful of countries retain relations with the ruling Republic of China government, whose constitution explicitly refers to Taiwan as a Chinese province. While the Republic of China and People's Republic of China define "China" differently, both recognize that Taiwan is a Chinese province.
The argument that Taiwan is culturally independent also falls flat.
While Korea and Japan have borrowed much of their respective material cultures from China, they have their own political and social histories. Their languages have no direct relationship with Chinese and their people are ethnically distinct.
The Taiwanese, by contrast, belong to the same ethnic group, the Han, to which most people in mainland China belong. They speak a dialect of Minnan, one of the 11 or so spoken forms of Chinese that also include Mandarin and Cantonese; Minnan is also spoken in Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan provinces.
Aside from regional variations, Taiwanese culture is basically Chinese.
Ultimately, the issue goes back to the Cold War. The Republic of China government, led by the Kuomintang - the Nationalist Party - fled to Taiwan in 1949 following its defeat on the mainland by the communists. Though the Kuomintang, comprising mostly Mandarin-speaking mainlanders, intended to retake the mainland, it eventually became clear that this would be impossible, so it developed Taiwan. At the same time, it declared martial law and ruthlessly suppressed dissent among the Minnan-speaking locals during the "White Terror" era, which lasted from 1949 to 1987.
I think a lot of "Taiwanese identity" is a reaction to long-standing mistreatment by mainlanders and colonizers. When people from a region of a country have a history of being mistreated and looked down upon, they will often attempt to forge an identity distinct from the rest of the country. People from the American South, who often distinguish themselves from the "Yankees" in the North, are another example.
I wouldn't write about this issue if I didn't think it was relevant to Americans. Even though the US officially recognizes the People's Republic of China as the legitimate Chinese government, it continues to provide military assistance and weaponry to the Republic of China. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the US has a commitment to help Taiwan defend itself. If mainland China attacks Taiwan, which it has repeatedly threatened to do if the island formally declares independence, the US could be drawn into the conflict.
As a solution to the impasse, the mainland first needs to renounce the use of violence and not assume that it can treat Taiwan as another Hong Kong or Macau. Second, the people and politicians of Taiwan need to stop trying to assert their independence on the basis of spurious arguments. Third, but not least, the US needs to stay firmly out of the picture.
Write to Alaric atajdearment@bsu.edu
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