By Denys Springer
Following the preface in part one; I now come to my pet subject and the focus on Taiwan, a country I have studied in depth because it was given the name Ilha Formosa – The beautiful island.
Taiwan in my view is a responsible country and their treatment since Xi Jinping has come into power is without a doubt unacceptable and world leaders have failed to do what is right because of the ‘massive corruption’ that is involved when dealing with China. We have witnessed China’s influence at the UN and recently with the World Health Organisation (WHO) with the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have seen their attitude towards Taiwan in regard to Interpol, WHA, UNFRCCC, ICAO and other blatant disrespect towards the Taiwanese president and it’s the people. Why? Because they refuse to accept the “One China Principle” and the 1992 consensus which was never agreed upon. Not only that, but the world has also witnessed what China means by the One Country – two systems policy. They expected Taiwan to have complied in their dealings with Hong Kong and the world has now realized that this was always about country and Chinese nationalism.
History shows us that Taiwan does not belong to China and never has. I have done some ancient Archeology studies from (5000-6000) years ago and that was during the ice age – when the two countries were joined and where we now have the Taiwan Straits was a valley where nomads wandered and even lived moving freely. Nature placed an end to that and then we saw the split. None of the so-called dynasties in China ever controlled Taiwan. The only one that came close was the Qing dynasty and even then, it was only the lowlands of Taiwan that they had some control, not the highlands where many of the indigenous tribes of Taiwan lived.
They were called the Head Hunters. Taiwan was seen as the home of the Indigenous Austronesian peoples. Their indigenous culture is not just a precious jewel of their land, it is moreover the important source of Austronesian history and culture. According to Lin Chiang-Yi , “the Austronesian people migrated from Taiwan South to the Philippines and then from there spread out to settle on various islands in Oceania even extending into the Indian Ocean. In nearly two years on my Research Fellowship in Taiwan, I could find no evidence that Taiwan was part and parcel of China as Xi Jinping insist and therefore see them as a renegade province of China. This is simply absurd and history has shown that. He is simply on a wild goose chase.
China’s reasoning and blatant disrespect at this juncture of the COVID-19 and to draw the world away from the blatant spread of a disease originating from their country seems to flex their muscle on Hong Kong and to have incursions into Taiwanese air space to heighten fear. This is also a cover-up for what is taking place in China in terms of or worsening economic conditions.
In my view, China is in far more serious problems than first anticipated. China presently has serious unemployment challenges and economic performance issue that will not go away soon. This is becoming more visible as countries like England, some European countries; Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and others are beginning to move away from China for competitive markets and accessible trade routes.
In the Far East what we are now witnessing is a solidarity pact between Japan and Taiwan which is unprecedented. As the weeks, months, and years past, we are seeing the two countries coming together and sooner or later, will develop a defense pact. This will be a major breakthrough between the two countries since they were unified between 1895 – 1945.
There was never this link between China and Taiwan as the Qing Dynasty never controlled Taiwan per se, except for limited authority in the lowlands. It was the Japanese in 1933 that finally brought the country under one country. It must be made clear to every country of the world that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) never ruled Taiwan. I also forecast that young Taiwanese have made it clear that they do not see themselves as Chinese but Taiwanese. Therefore they sent a clear message to the Ma government in resisting any move towards economic cooperation, moreover, integration with China and hence – the Sunflower Movement.
China must realize that Taiwan is not Hong Kong or Tibet. They should stop the bully boy tactics of trying to instill fear into the hearts of the Taiwanese people because it will not work. Taiwan is a country that has democratized itself against all the odds and is a model of democracy. The father of Taiwan’s democracy just died at the age of 97. Ilha Formosa the beautiful country, long live the Taiwanese people.
Related: The arrogance of China: Part 1
