Taiwan – a Convenient Pawn?

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material
borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will
bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or
misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Samrat Ganguly, EMBA 2020-23, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

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Off late strategic foreign relationship thinkers in India are lobbying hard for establishing formal
relationship with Taiwan to counter the assertive China. To understand how Taiwan acts as a
counter balance to China we have to go back to history.

It all started in 19th century which marked the decline of Qing dynasty and birth of Chinese
personalities who were going to shape its future for generation to come - Sun Yat-Sen, Chiang Kai-
shek and Mao Zedong. Taiwan till then was part of China. Two parallel events happened during the
early twentieth century. Annexation of Taiwan by Japan by the end of First World War and formation
of Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP) also known as Kuomintang (KMT), which like the Congress party in
India, became an umbrella party for people of various ideologies, by Sun Yat-Sen. Under this party
the Republic of China (ROC) was formed with Sun Yat-Sen as its leader. After death of Sun Yat-Sen
the mantle was passed on it his one of his favorite Chiang Kai-shek. However, by then fracture in the
KMT was becoming visible as the Communist faction under Mao started to rebel against Chiang.
Second World War (WWII) also started meantime and Republic of China Under Chiang supported the
Allied force to fight against Japan. With the end of WWII, Japan had to handover Taiwan to China.

Meantime, civil war had started and Mao became more assertive to bring down Chiang. Chiang with
his followers fled from Mainland China and fled to Taiwan, where is established his China’s
government in exile. By then, Communists under Mao had completed its domination over mainland
China and formed People Republic of China (PRC). KMT under Chiang in Taiwan aspired for taking
over Mainland China and “purge” it from Communists.

West recognized ROC for its role in WWII. Moreover, since PRC was under communist alliance with it
was not possible as it was time of Cold War. Infact, ROC was initial signatories of United Nation.
However, as it is popularly believed in diplomacy - there is never a full-stops between nations, there
can be comma or semi-colons - allies started to recognize mainland China due to its highly
competitive labor force which made it ideal for opening up offshore manufacturing units for
companies all over the world. Thus 1970s, with opening up of China’s economy and access to the
world, meteoric economic rise began and Taiwan had to bear the cost. In UN, ROC was replaced with
PRC and this cascaded to all other world bodies. China forced countries who wanted to establish
relationship with it, must recognize Taiwan as its part.

KMT still aspired, which now seems to be a mere wishful thing, to take over mainland China. In
1990s there was rise of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan which ideologically took a
more pragmatic stand. It considered Taiwan and mainland China as separate nations. Current
President of Taiwan – Tsai Ing-wen is from DPP and is staunch proponent of independent Taiwan
identity, which mainland China cannot accept.
With the above as the background we can well understand why again reestablishment of ties with
Taiwan is gaining ground, which was conveniently severed off. Now, time will tell if Taiwan is mere a
Pawn of world power or this traction is for real.