The key to understanding Taiwan's relationship with China and the rest of the world lies in knowing the intricacies and significance of events that have shaped its history. In writing Taiwan: Nation-State or Province? John F. Copper has created a quick tour of the island and its history, giving the reader insight to its current affairs.
Any newcomer to Taipei who starts to read the daily English papers will soon become confused by the arcane phrases and curious circumstances that describe Taiwan's place in the world. One China, the three noes, the Taiwan Relations Act, the flow of people and money through Hong Kong and Macau--but not directly to China--these and more present hurdles to understanding what the articles, and Taiwan itself, are about.
Finally, by using a patchwork of daily papers, conversations, and other sources, the arrival becomes familiar with this language: One China is a rubric that allows both governments to maintain legitimacy; the three noes are a mainland policy that seeks to isolate Taiwan; and the Taiwan Relations Act allows the United States to lend legitimacy to Taiwan despite officially recognizing China.
But there are still gaps in the newcomer's knowledge. Holidays and other anniversaries come and go, like the Double Tenth National Day, Chiang Kai-shek's birthday, and the Peace Memorial Day (February 28), leaving unanswered questions about Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese Civil War, and the Nationalist government. Trips to cities like Tainan and Tamshui create questions about the Dutch, Koxinga, the Japanese occupation, and so on.
Enter John F. Copper's book, Taiwan: Nation-State or Province? This slim, 210-page volume is very useful in filling in these irksome gaps in one's knowledge of Taiwan, and it provides a quick but comprehensive history of the island, with emphasis on the past fifty years. The book starts with the island's geography and people, then discusses its history, society, politics, and foreign relations. Copper's book does not set lofty goals for itself--it does not seek to speculate, analyze, or explain. It is a summary rather than an interpretation.
Copper is impressed with certain aspects of Taiwan history, particularly land reform and the subsequent economic boom, and the gradual growth of free elections and democracy. His discussion of the Nationalist government's land reform program argues that it was key to the subsequent economic growth, and who could disagree? The fruitless economy of the Philippines shows the shortcomings of leaving land in the hands of rich extended families.
Taiwan's land reform program, launched in 1948, entailed sharp rent reductions for sharecroppers; the sale of public lands to tenant farmers at 2.5 times the value of one year's crop; and a land-to-tiller program that forced landlords to sell land they did not farm themselves. By leveling the playing field and sowing the seeds of equal economic opportunity, the program launched Taiwan not only on the road to prosperity, but on the road to democracy as well.
Like many authors, Copper writes often of the Taiwan miracle. He makes frequent note of the island's limited natural resources, and dense population. However, he gives little mention to Taiwan's inherent advantages: its excellent ports, stable government, ethnic cohesion, and geographical position at the heart of Asia, a region that has experienced excellent economic growth for the past thirty or forty years.
Politically, Taiwan has peacefully put in place a thriving democratic system. A glance around Asia shows that this is rare, indeed. Unlike Singapore and Malaysia, Taiwan has active opposition parties and a free press. Unlike the Philippines and Indonesia, Taiwan's democratic institutions, while young, appear stable. And unlike Japan, Taiwan has proven capable of removing a dominant political party from power, and replacing it with an upstart.
Democracy is surely Taiwan's crowning achievement, and the book contains a helpful discussion of the key players and events in this remarkable transformation. The election of President Chen Shui-bian was an extraordinary event, the culmination of a decades-long movement toward greater freedom. It showed Taiwan to be a genuine democracy with all the attendant liberties. It remains the world's only Chinese-run democracy, in contrast to Singapore and China, which are single-party dictatorships. As such, it qualifies as a political miracle, according to the fourth definition in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: a wonderful or surpassing example of some quality.
But for the most part, Copper lets the reader decide which are the key moments in Taiwan's history. Aside from land reform and the dawn of democracy, these seem to be: Koxinga defeating the Dutch and encouraging immigration from Fujian Province; retrocession from Japan and the arrival of the Nationalists; the gradual political ascendancy of Beijing at the expense of Taipei; and the economic rapprochement with China. The book includes discussions of all of these actions, and many more, although it does not mention the World Trade Organization and the advent of direct links, which in all likelihood will be the next big event.
Along the way, Copper's book provides a large number of historical and factual nuggets. For instance, Taiwan's rivers pose little flood menace. According to the author, the constantly flooding rivers in China played a large role in creating the bureaucracy there. Something similar is afoot in Taiwan: the Pachang Creek drownings helped spur better emergency rescue, while the September 21 earthquake tightened building codes and helped enforce them. The same effect might presumably be expected to occur from the grounded tanker that spilled oil into Kenting National Park.
Another nugget: Taiwan has steady rainfall and rich soil, which make for predictable, and productive, agricultural output. China, by contrast, has sporadic rainfall and plenty of poor soil, which hamstring the mainland's ability to launch a Taiwan-style industrial revolution based on bountiful agriculture.
Some of the items in the book are simple, stand-alone facts. For example, just one-third of the 4,000 species of plants are indigenous, a remarkably low total; the island has thirteen types of poisonous snakes; the best harbors are on the west coast because the mountains border the east coast; the proportion of boys to girls increased measurably following the legalization of abortion in 1985; and so on. Other facts are more obvious--anyone who lives here knows that Taiwan's summers are hot, humid, and long. Our air conditioning bills tell us that.
The most fascinating historical events in any history, as Hollywood well knows, are often the most gruesome. The book serves up a blood-curdling tale from Taiwan's past: Cheng Cheng-kung, also known as Koxinga, was the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) loyalist who overthrew Dutch rule in Taiwan. Like Sun Yat-sen was to do more than two centuries later, Cheng raised funds from overseas Chinese in support of his cause, which was to reestablish the deposed Ming Dynasty. He sent emissaries to the Philippines to raise funds, and he also tried to incite the overseas Chinese to rise up against the Spanish government. That was a bad idea. The Spanish immediately murdered 10,000 Chinese living in the Philippines, and sent a message to Cheng. Don't come back, said the message, there are no Chinese left in Manila.
There are similar items of interest sprinkled throughout the book. Here is one more: many Taiwanese joined the Japanese army and fought against mainland China. Some, according to Copper, even fought in Nanjing, where they participated in atrocities against their fellow Chinese. Such items are interesting, but in the end Copper's book is not the sort of text that should be strip-mined for tidbits. It rewards the careful reader who is able to draw historical parallels. Indeed, history is the most provocative subject in the liberal arts pantheon for a simple reason: mankind is doomed to repeat it. Taiwan's past contains some remarkable echoes.
For example, there are striking similarities between the government of Cheng Cheng-kung and that of Chiang Kai-shek. Both were refugees from the mainland who came to Taiwan after losing control of the country, and both spent much of their time plotting to retake Beijing. Both, of course, ultimately failed to regain command of the mainland. For Cheng, just the opposite happened--the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911) came to Taiwan and took it over. Will that piece of history recur?
There are other instances of Taiwan history repeating itself. Japan, for instance, has occupied all or part of Taiwan on two occasions--might there be a third? And during the Ching Dynasty, very little Manchu culture was transmitted to Taiwan, and the island became a repository of Chinese culture. That happened a second time during the mid-1960s Cultural Revolution.
Some of the book's passages, such as a lengthy discourse on the Constitution, are of interest only to real Taiwan junkies. Yet much of the book is of broader interest, including Copper's discussion of Taiwan and China. The Chinese government has always had a slender and tenuous relationship with Taiwan, but that slight relationship has been magnified by Beijing to support its claim to the island.
Copper does the reader a service by presenting, briefly and without polemic, the history of Taiwan and China. Here one can read the details on "one country, two systems"; the ban on direct trade, transportation, and communication links; the "go south" policy; the three noes; the 1995 and 1996 missile tests; the various White Papers; China's refusal to renounce the use of force; and many other useful details, all laid out in readily digestible form.
The third major player, the United States, is also dealt with at length. Washington has long had a hot-and-cold relationship with Taiwan. In 1950, at the height of the Cold War, Secretary of State Dean Acheson announced that the United States would not provide aid or other support to the Nationalists. The Americans then turned around and embraced Taiwan as an anti-communist ally during the Vietnam War.
Washington officially recognized China in 1979, and then turned around and passed the Taiwan Relations Act three months later. Writes Copper: "In essence, the act reestablished Taiwan's status as a sovereign nation-state according to US law and, in part, US foreign policy. [I]t provided Taiwan with security guarantees."
In 1992 the Bush administration sold 150 F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, and in 1995 the Clinton administration allowed former President Lee Teng-hui to make his incendiary visit to the United States. But in 1998, another mixed message: in Beijing, Clinton reiterated the three noes, verbatim: "We don't support independence for Taiwan, or two Chinas or one Taiwan, one China. And we don't believe Taiwan should be a member in any organization for which statehood is a requirement." And so the relationship has gone, and so it will likely continue--an ambiguous and uncertain partnership, made more uncertain by rapidly increasing US business interests in China.
US presidents, Copper notes, tend to prefer China, while Congress, less beholden to business interests and more swayed by populist sentiment, tends to back Taiwan. This adds to the ambiguity. The US policy of ambiguity seems to serve Taiwan pretty well, however. It discourages local firebrands from declaring independence, and it also discourages military hotheads in mainland China from mounting an invasion.
The book does have its faults. For one, it makes no effort to brighten the material with anecdote or example. The author makes little attempt to entice or interest the reader, or lure him or her through the duller phases of the Taiwan story. Presumably the book is assigned to American undergraduates, and as required reading need not try to be interesting.
But some passages cry out for anecdote and example. In one sentence the author writes, "A white paper on reunification, released in late 1993 by the People's Republic of China, also contributed to the ill feeling, as did an incident during which a number of tourists from Taiwan were murdered in China, after which Beijing engaged in a blatant cover-up attempt." What are the details? None are forthcoming.
A second fault is the book's relentlessly positive tone. Taiwan has much to be proud of, but every polity has made serious mistakes, and this island is no exception. The crimes of the early Nationalist government--particularly the initial plunder, and later the pervasive corruption and the savage repression of all civil rights--are glossed over. The White Terror was typified by executions without trial, midnight knocks on the door, long prison terms for political prisoners, and strict suppression of everything Taiwanese. Yet the words "White Terror" do not appear in the book, and crimes against the populace are only briefly mentioned. Likewise the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, a key event in the evolution of the island's democracy, is given short shrift.
The government has made smaller mistakes that affect citizens on a daily basis. In the late 1980s, the government raised standards for export, and in some cases prohibited the export of inferior goods. So what happens to the inferior goods? They are sold to the residents of Taiwan. That explains why many Taiwan-made appliances are so lousy. By not stressing overall quality, as Japan did, the government did a major disservice to the people who live here.
Coverage of the economy is similarly rose-tinted, especially given the current state of the economy, as Taiwan is now pondering the very serious question of exactly where its economic advantage lies. But this is quibbling, and with the advantage of hindsight over the past year. Taiwan has clearly prospered in the past fifty years. As Copper notes, Taiwan early on linked its economy to the United States, helping to debunk the then-popular Dependency Theory. According to this theory, an undeveloped country should not become too dependent upon any other single economy. However, the Taiwan-US trade link proved so profitable and launched Taiwan so far into the global economy that it is now used as an example for developing countries.
Copper also overstates the ethnic divisions in Taiwan. Perhaps this reflects his residence in America--he is a professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee--where race is always a large issue, whether or not it deserves to be. By Asian standards, Taiwan has enviable social cohesion, with none of the ethnic and religious divisions that frequently erupt into violence in Indonesia, India, and the Philippines, and boil just beneath the surface in Malaysia, China, Singapore, and else where.
Several of the observations are a little out of date. Copper writes that Taiwan's military is in a state of high preparedness, but is it really? In the past few years, the consensus on this has changed, and Taiwan is increasingly seen as unready to mount a credible defense in an era of high-tech sophisticated weaponry. A series of ROC Air Force plane crashes, along with reports from US intelligence faulting Taiwan's military systems, have fuelled the growing perception that Taiwan is not especially well prepared for war.
The same applies to the discussion of Taiwanese education. While Copper's treatment is positive, the education system has come under fire lately for its reliance on rote memorization and stressful exams, and educational reform is gathering steam. But these are minor faults, and are partly a result of the book's modest aim, which is to present a quick, no-frills history of the island. A book of 210 pages, after all, cannot cover everything, and Copper has done a nice job of covering the essentials, while exposing some little-known facts.
But what of the future? Copper believes that Taiwan will continue to play a role in China's development; that it will be a problem in US-China policy; and it will be an important actor in world politics. The most intriguing chapter, of course, has yet to be written. That will be final resolution of the conflict between Taiwan and China. As Copper writes: "Taiwan's future will certainly be interesting." Yes--and unpredictable as well.
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Brent Hannon is a freelance journalist
based in Taipei. He writes for Time, The
Asian Wall Street Journal, and Taipei
Times, among other publications.
Copyright 2001 by Brent Hannon.