Tag Archives: world history

07/10/2024 · 10:02 AM

Who’s your daddy, communist China? “PRC could not be ‘motherland,’ William Lai says. The PRC turned 75 on Oct. 1, but the Republic of China is older. The PRC could never be the homeland of the people of the ROC, Lai said,” Taipei Times. Taiwan Republic 台灣国 and geostrategery classrooms

Who’s your daddy, communist China? “PRC could not be ‘motherland,’ William Lai says. The PRC turned 75 on Oct. 1, but the Republic of China is older. The PRC could never be the homeland of the people of the ROC, Lai said,” Taipei Times. Taiwan Republic 台灣国 and geostrategery classrooms

How does one defend democratic Taiwan from an all-domain war against its democratic sovereignty?

Over a decade ago Taiwan Republic’s first democratically elected president Lee Teng-hui declared the “special state to state” relationship between Taiwan and communist China. A few years ago Taiwan’s third democratically elected president Tsai Ing-wen clarified that position by stipulating democratic “RoC Taiwan” – with twenty-three million citizens – as the status quo. Tsai’s successor, democratically elected President William Lai deepened the position not so much as the historical pissing match noted by many media, but as a message to anti-democratic and anti-Taiwan forces outside and inside Taiwan that the People’s Republic of China has zero historical or legal claims to citizens of democratic Taiwan.

President Tsai’s remarkable eight years have shaped a stable domestic governing majority on the premise of the democratic sovereignty of “RoC Taiwan” as the status quo. A domestic consensus that’s acceptable to Taiwan’s allies in the Free World. The Chinese communists, with their allies in Taiwan and among Western academia, have launched a new wave of assault against democratic Taiwan.

The malevolent global and domestic anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan forces President Lai is facing are in Beijing, in Taipei, they are also the Western imperialist think tanks and newspapers. The China KMT and the China People’s Party are both anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan sovereignty political parties that are serving as the vanguard of the Chinese communist war to subvert Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty. The echoes one hears from some Western imperialist think tanks, columnists, and Chinese communist mouthpieces inside Taiwan, are all trying to return Taiwan to the status of “troublemaker” – they argue: that Chinese imperialism and militarism are not the problem, Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty is the problem.
Democratically elected President Lai must ask the Chinese communists, their proxies in Taiwan, and Western imperialist scholars and journalists – on what basis does the Chinese Communist Party claim the right to govern the People’s Republic of China? Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty is legitimate – derived from one citizen one vote – how do the Chinese communists and dictator Xi derive their legitimacy to claim sovereignty?

President Lai is staking out clear national boundaries around Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty, while doing so in a way acceptable to the US, Japan, and European democracies. I have written previously that if one studies the China KMT’s former chair Ma Ying-jeou’s statements during his latest visit to communist China, the only issue he and his refugee party have left to concede is that the “one Chinese national family” he and his party supports is the People’s Republic of China. In this context, President Lai’s remarks make complete sense – for decades now as China KMT’s anti-Taiwan national identity position becomes a permanent electoral minority inside Taiwan, they have defended a political paradox – to advocate as super RoC patriots inside Taiwan, while refusing to speak of the RoC whenever they kowtow to communist China. Presidents Tsai and Lai’s embrace of RoC dismantles that China KMT grift. The fact that no party has a political future in democratic Taiwan when they advocate surrendering to the Chinese communists may also be why the China KMT and the China People’s Party have moved from passively refusing to acknowledge Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty to attempting to use their paper-thin majority in the Parliament to destroy Taiwan’s democracy. As the Chinese communists have done in Hong Kong, as with many cases such as Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, anti-democratic forces will use democratic institutions to overcome their electoral unpopularity.

This means President Lai is fighting a multi-front war to preserve Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty – against the Chinese communists, against the Chinese communist proxies inside Taiwan, as well as against naive and/or compromised Western think tanks who still dream that dialogue and engagement with the Chinese communists will lead to a peaceful compromise.

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30/07/2024 · 9:40 AM

‘Porcupine’ without clarity on Taiwan’s statehood will not work: “Taiwan may yet become a porcupine,” The Strategist ASPI. Taiwan Republic 台灣国 and geostrategery classrooms.

‘Porcupine’ without clarity on Taiwan’s statehood will not work: “Taiwan may yet become a porcupine,” The Strategist ASPI. Taiwan Republic 台灣国 and geostrategery classrooms. This is an excellent article. Particularly noteworthy is the attention the author paid to the historical-political-cultural background within the autocratic China KMT-dominated national security apparatus which has frustrated efforts at reform. This is unusual for English-language IR analysts. The key paragraph is:

“Historical legacy worsens the military’s rigid top-down culture and bureaucratic resistance to change: it was once part of the then authoritarian Nationalist Party (KMT), which imposed dictatorship on Taiwan from 1949 to 1987. Previous defence ministers have often been retired generals or admirals, who have tended to allocate funds and choose programs to suit the desires of the service they came from, regardless of the needs of national defence.”

Analysts have aptly compared Taiwan’s democratization – broadly understood, in all realms of this emerging democratic nation – as comparable to pro-democracy and pro-Taiwan leaders trying to upgrade and fix an aircraft while it is in flight. Taiwan Republic’s first democratically elected president Dr. Lee Teng-Hui had to simultaneously combat reactionary, anti-democratic, and anti-Taiwan forces within the China KMT, erroneous and unhelpful policies from the US, and the Chinese communists while democratizing Taiwan. President Chen, the second democratically elected president, had to face a parliament dominated by the anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan China KMT, along with a US that maintained unhelpful policies. While Presidents Tsai and Lai face the US and the Free World that is finally realizing the threat to the world posed by the Chinese communists, the importance of domestic political stability and the threat of an invasion from the Chinese to annex Taiwan means the pace of reform and change within the Taiwan national security apparatus is limited.

Two elements are often missing in foreign analysis of Taiwan’s military reforms to prepare for the Chinese invasion are domestic consensus on Taiwan’s national identity, and the clarity by the US and democratic allies on Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty. Taiwan does not have a healthy democratic polity because not all of the major political parties recognize Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty. Anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan China KMT’s leaders in the parliament are adamant that China – Taiwanese democratic sovereignty’s greatest enemy – must be addressed as the “mainland”. If there is no national consensus on “us/we” versus “them/they” – then from whom should the Taiwanese military defend Taiwanese citizens? If you read enough China KMT and China KMT adjacent writings you might be convinced that unreliable American imperialists or Japanese pose a greater threat than the Chinese communists. President Lai’s challenge is to nudge the national security apparatus to democratize and indigenize itself so that the national identity confusion is resolved – only then can democratic forces within Taiwan have a productive debate over whether the “porcupine” strategy makes sense, and if so, in what form would it be most effective. In short, it is impossible to have such a national security debate if the major parties do not even agree on Taiwan’s nationhood.

The other element missing in many analyses is that the porcupine strategy without a clear commitment from the US and the Free World to Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty will not deter Chinese imperialists from military adventurism. Think of this as the global companion to Taiwan’s domestic national identity crisis. So long as the US and the Free World maintain the dated strategic ambiguity regarding Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty, then Chinese imperialists in Beijing will imagine the opportunity where their militarism will succeed. So long as policymaking circles in DC and other democratic capitals hold on to the outdated and erroneous beliefs that democratic nations can dialogue and engage the Chinese communists into a peaceful compromise (how did this belief work out with dictator Putin and democratic Ukraine by the way? ….) – then the dictators of China will dream of a shock and awe, low cost, lighting military strike against democratic Taiwan where collaborators within Taiwan will assist in creating a de facto communist annexation of democratic Taiwan. Without clarity on Taiwan’s emerging national identity – premised on democratic sovereignty – domestically and abroad, Taiwan’s national security will not be enhanced, whether it be porcupine or hellscape. 30.7.2024

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27/07/2024 · 9:52 AM

Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty “Resilience improving: US official. DETERRING CHINA: The Pentagon has made strides in developing a new concept of operations to address challenges in the western Pacific region, Ely Ratner said,” Taipei Times.  Taiwan Republic 台灣国, national identity, and geostrategery classrooms.

Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty “Resilience improving: US official. DETERRING CHINA: The Pentagon has made strides in developing a new concept of operations to address challenges in the western Pacific region, Ely Ratner said,” Taipei Times.  Taiwan Republic 台灣国, national identity, and geostrategery classrooms. Sooner or later – and given the radical policies pursued by the Chinese communists and its anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan allies inside Taiwan and beyond, sooner – policymakers in Taipei, Tokyo, DC, and other capitals in the Free World will have to reckon with whether Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty is real. As of 2024, the Biden administration is working mightily to give Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty greater resilience while holding onto the geostrategery fiction cobbled together between DC, the Chinese communists, and the dictatorial China KMT. The last of this fiction is in Secretary Ratner’s comments:

“The consistent policy of the US is to maintain the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait and oppose any unilateral attempts to change it, [Ratner] said.”

The United Front position of the Chinese Communist Party, the China KMT, and the China People’s Party is that Taiwan does not have democratic sovereignty. Unlike in the 1960s, 1980s, or the 2010s, wherein the dictatorial China KMT maintained linguistic barriers between what remains of the “RoC/Free China” and “PRC/Communist Bandits” – China KMT’s former chair Ma, its legislators in the Taiwanese parliament, have negated Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty vis-a-vis China/PRC. Similar to dictator Putin’s declaration on the eve of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine that a sovereign independent nation-state of Ukraine “did not exist,” this is the united front position of the Chinese communists and its allies inside Taiwan.

Interestingly, some Western IR analysts-scholars have proposed ‘softer’ but functionally similar positions to the Chinese communists and the China KMT – that Taiwan’s alleged historical destiny is to be annexed by the Chinese communists; or, again similar to what Ukraine has experienced, Western analysts using the threat of nucular war/world was as the reason to force Taiwan to “compromise/negotiate/make concessions” – all slightly softer ways of arguing Taiwan should surrender its democratic sovereignty.

The historical reasons that enabled the “status quo in the Taiwan Strait” fiction have run their course. From 1949, when the latest Chinese civil war ended, to recently, the communist dictators of China lacked the military ability to invade Taiwan. From 1949 to 1996 when the China KMT colonized and occupied Taiwan with their brutal dictatorship, Taiwan lacked a genuine voice and did not possess democratic sovereignty. From 1949 to 2019 the US and the Free World saw communist China as a “card” to play against the USSR during the Cold War, and subsequently, as a major source of cheap labor and a significant market for consumer goods. By 2024, none of those conditions are true – although policymakers in Western democracies have been slow to react and adjust. Moreover, the fantasy that if the US and the Free World would just “give” democratic Taiwan to the Chinese communists a sustainable peace could be had persists – again the echo with Ukraine, I am certain that even two years after the Russian invasion began, there are still similar voices inside Western capitals regarding abandoning democratic Ukraine to the Russian dictator “for peace in our time”.

The reality of 2024 is that there is a new status quo. A new status quo where the Chinese communists and their anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan allies inside Taiwan, such as the China KMT, have become radicalized and militant. Beijing has formed a strategic-military global alliance with Moscow and other bad actors to subvert the world order. China is no longer a reliable provider of cheap labor. Taiwan has become a democracy – with one citizen one vote – since 1996. On a purely political theory basis, the democratically elected government of Taiwan has more legitimacy to claim national status than the dictators of China – ask Western theorists on what basis should we consider dictator Putin and dictator Xi legitimate leaders of their nations for your own amusement. The sooner the Free World faces this new status quo honestly and makes concrete preparations – with Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty as the core – the safer the world becomes. Leaving Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty ambiguous creates room for military adventurists in Beijing to temptation – the temptation to imagine that Chinese communist and China KMT aggression against Taiwanese democracy in all forms (military, gray zone, economic coercion, assault against Taiwan’s democratic institutions, information warfare, and so on) will be accepted by global democracies. As we should have learned from Ukraine and many historical precedents – the more ambivalent liberal democracies are, the longer the Free World waits, the more aggressive autocracies become. Which ultimately means the higher the price the world has to pay. 27.7.2024


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20/07/2024 · 8:08 AM

“Japanese and Taiwanese coast guards hold first joint drill,”  The Japan Times. Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms.

“Japanese and Taiwanese coast guards hold first joint drill,”  The Japan Times. Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms. Multilateralism is difficult work. Most challenging for democracies, successful multilateralism does not translate into votes. There is a long history of American citizens voting out the geostrategery-foreign policy competent presidents – George Herbert Walker Bush is the most recent example. President Tsai’s eight years illustrate the clear and present threat to Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty posed by Chinese communists. Had democratic Taiwan had a more peaceful, civilized neighbor, foreign policy-focused President Tsai’s electoral fortunes might have been different. The collaboration between Japanese and Taiwanese Coast Guards – official and in public – is a good first step. This report should be linked with recent reports of joint Taiwanese and American naval drills, as well as the collaboration between the US and Taiwan Coast Guards – also in public and official. Can one’s official Coast Guard collaborate with Taiwan’s official Coast Guard without de facto recognizing the officialness of Taiwan’s democratically elected national government? And so when America, Japan, and the Free World ritually speak of their “unofficial” ties to Taiwan, well, action speaks louder than words.

These multilateral geostrategery cooperations in the Indo-Pacific are important because Chinese communists are using their paramilitary forces to extend Chinese imperialism in the South Sea, Taiwan Strait, and the East Sea. While this Chinese belligerence has been categorized by some as “gray-zone” tactics, I am not sure how ‘gray’ this gray zone is in that as with the Coast Guards of the Free World, the Chinese communist maritime paramilitary forces are essentially another branch of their military. Great credit to President Tsai and her liberal hawks for investing in the Taiwan Coast Guard – better, newer ships, multilateral cooperation, and as illustrated above, Taiwan Coast Guard ships capable of firing long-range anti-ship missiles during a Chinese invasion.

For the American-led democratic multilateralisms – the Coast Guards appear slightly less “escalatory” than the navies (although again, I am skeptical of this slow dance ….) The best news is that for the Coast Guards of Korea, Japan, the US, Taiwan Republic, Australia, and the Philippines to collaborate, it means ongoing strategic and operational dialogue exists between the national security officials of these democratic nations. If this is correct, then this is a great breakthrough and the Biden liberal hawks should be given credit. It also means that without future disruptions, the logical next step is collaboration between different branches of the military of these democratic nations in the Indo-Pacific region. This year these collaborations with Taiwan exist just on the edge of RIMPAC and other US-led Indo-Pacific military drills – soon Taiwan’s military should be integrated into these trainings.

This is why I have written previously: the greatest threat to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and the world has to do with the self-inflicted mess in Washington, DC. Erratic, authoritarian-friendly American isolationism – as it did in the 1930s – is a necessary precondition for another world war. Nor would those within the American center-left who still believe in “dialogue and engagement” with the Chinese communists lead to a better, more peaceful result. 20.7.2024

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16/07/2024 · 10:08 AM

Has Taiwan Republic ended Martial Law? “海鯤艦近距離觀察,” Tommy Chi 諸葛風雲的異想世界。 Decolonization and military classrooms.

Has Taiwan Republic ended Martial Law? “海鯤艦近距離觀察,” Tommy Chi 諸葛風雲的異想世界。 Decolonization and military classrooms. The brutal China KMT martial law/military colonization of Taiwan formally ended 37 years ago. However, because Taiwanese citizens have yet to purge the impact of decades of China KMT dictatorship/Chinese Taipei colonialism-cultural imperialism, it is difficult to find globally and historically contextualized discussion of Taiwanese politics, history, and national security in its mass media. Although there are hopeful signs that Taiwanese citizens, despite the self-censorship imposed by anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan China KMT adjacent forces among corporate media, are making progress. This YouTube channel’s analysis of the Taiwan submarine program is a good example.

Historians obsess over periodizations. It’s an occupational hazard. When I was a graduate student, my committee member and Soviet Russia specialist (for me to study the two major Leninist authoritarian political parties of modern Chinese history, I had to understand Soviet-Russian history ….) spent a semester teaching me how to write scholarly book reviews. One of the Soviet historians I read noted something that changed how I thought about history – she chronicled how much time it took for Tsarist institutions, bureaucracies, and procedures to last deep into the Soviet period – long after The Revolution had occurred. Her point is that histories are written as stories – with a beginning, middle, and end, with different distinct and separate chapters. Human affairs, on the other hand, are complicated. We layer and mix things through time. Because humans are not machines, we cannot “delete our hard drives,” purge our memories, or turn the switches to “off.” And yet when we narrate and explain human affairs, that’s precisely how we speak of changes – this is particularly so during the age of revolution, when there are ideological and emotional imperatives to pretend there are clean breaks.

Maybe even asking if the China KMT martial law has really “ended” is indicative of this fallacy. China KMT’s colonization of Taiwan and its brutal dictatorship, from 1945 to 1996, did not end cleanly with the formal end of martial law or the first democratic presidential election. This is because the China KMT colonizers-dictators had five decades to change the language, alter the scholarly ecosystem, and monopolize the media. The China KMT dictatorship had decades to infiltrate itself into every corner of Taiwan – business, agriculture, labor unions, civic groups, neighborhood associations. The most difficult-to-study part of colonization is cultural imperialism – erasing the diverse cultural-national histories that existed in Taiwan before the China KMT invaded – while replacing them with a two-dimensional, fictional, blood and soil Chinese nationalism formulated in the service of justifying the right of the China KMT to colonize Taiwan as a one-party dictatorship (legitimate heir of thousands of years of authentic Chinese culture and polity, etc.) Nearly four decades after the China KMT martial law and dictatorship formally ended, the democratization and de-colonization of the Taiwanese consciousness have yet to begin in earnest. It is an interesting process to observe – a citizenry traumatized and changed by the China KMT colonization, attempting to discuss public policies, while still trapped in many instances by the ideological-cosmological constructs imposed by the Chinese colonizers.

The Taiwan submarine program is an example of the progress made in four decades by Taiwan’s democratization –  the existence of lively and insightful discussions of Taiwan’s national security, such as this YouTube channel would not have been possible in the 1980s. The extent to which Taiwan’s democracy has much left to be done in terms of decolonization and modernization can also be found in how Taiwan has been limited in how it debates national security issues, such as with this submarine program.

The near-miraculous existence of this Taiwan-assembled submarine — Taiwan is incapable of independently manufacturing its own automobiles, maybe not even motorcycles (although I am not certain of this) — it is certainly not capable of independently manufacturing its own frigates or destroyers. A submarine is closer to a spacecraft in terms of difficulty. Another way to think about it is this Taiwan submarine gives us a good way to gauge how much behind-the-scenes aid came from Taiwan Republic’s Free World allies. This is also the first major Taiwanese arms program in my memory where for eight years no major news leak occurred — a great credit to President Tsai and the people she put in charge of this project. President Tsai is the first democratically elected president of Taiwan to have had any meaningful control over the China KMT-dominated national security bureaucracy. The Taiwan submarine is in harbor trial and will be in sea trial for the rest of this year. To understand the AUKUS+ Free World nature of this project, see the foreign ambassadors who attended the submarine’s unveiling – the US, Korea, Japan, and the UK. To understand how lethal a fleet of Taiwanese conventional submarines is against Chinese imperialism and militarism, study the attacks against the submarines coming from the Chinese communists and its allies inside Taiwan. 16.7.2024

© Taiwan in World History 台灣與世界歷史. This site grants open access for educational and not-for-profit use. Maps and illustrations are borrowed under educational and not-for-profit fair use. If you are the rights holder and prefer not to have your work shared, please email TaiwanWorldHistory (at) Gmail (dot) com and the content will be removed.

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15/07/2024 · 5:29 AM

President Tsai Ing-wen and this emerging Taiwanese national identity, part five, “Tainan: The 400-year-old cradle of Taiwanese culture,” BBC. Taiwan Republic 台灣国, national identity, and world history classrooms.

President Tsai Ing-wen and this emerging Taiwanese national identity, part five, “Tainan: The 400-year-old cradle of Taiwanese culture,” BBC. Taiwan Republic 台灣国, national identity, and world history classrooms. This article on Tainan and Taiwanese history by Will Buckingham is excellent. A rarity for articles in either English or Mandarin dealing with Taiwanese history and national identity to have such a balance between accuracy and necessary complications. Particularly noteworthy is the attention the author paid to Taiwan’s indigenous, pre-global imperialism (European, Chinese, Japanese, China KMT) history and identity. 

The last paragraph of this article should be highlighted: “As Tsio̍h told me before I climbed on my bike to cycle home from the Confucius temple: “We Taiwanese are not that pure. We’re a hybrid society. We should be proud of that and start telling people this history and these stories of hybridity. Then maybe we can find peace with ourselves.”

In decades of teaching world history to American students, I have assigned a semester-long research project where students connect their family’s history with the world history we studied. Every semester I would gently remind them that not a single human being is ever 100% anything – and as sure as I am that Taiwan Republic has great food or that my mother will never, ever like a haircut I get, more than one student will begin the research presentation by proudly declaring their family to be “100% [insert the nationality]”

So the quote above, while apt for Taiwanese citizens, particularly as a young democratic nation facing down an aggressive, authoritarian, imperialist neighbor, is also sound advice for all of humanity.

It’s an interesting psychological phenomenon. Why is it so important for some to be “pure”? Maybe we have become so accustomed to taking tests and being graded that we erroneously equate higher national identity “purity” with a higher score. I’ve also often reminded students that even though intellectually humans say that we want to learn and be challenged, in reality, most of us prefer simple answers, a clean story arc where heroes and villains are unambiguous, with a happy ending that ties up all loose ends. 

“Impurity,” like functioning democracies, is the opposite of that simple, memorable, story that requires little work from the audience – multicultural, multinational, dynamic democratic national identities require commitment, sacrifice, and hard work.

Hybridity, impurity, and complications are characteristics of this emerging Taiwanese national identity under President Tsai. In Taiwan’s struggles to maintain its democratic sovereignty, there is tension between reactionary, authoritarian forces (from China and its allies in Taiwan and the Free World) propagating a fictional but easier-to-narrate blood and soil national identity, versus a subtle, contradictory, chaotic emerging Taiwanese identity based upon democratic sovereignty. This is an island democratic nation of 23 million citizens, whose presidential palace was built by the Japanese, later used by the China KMT colonizers-dictators, now housing democratically elected presidents. This democracy is still using the formal name of “RoC” imposed on Taiwan by the authoritarian China KMT, where multicultural citizens speak Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, Indigenous; or Indonesian, Malay, English, or Vietnamese. How does Taiwan maintain a functioning, stable democracy capable of defending itself from Chinese communist subversions and sabotage – through mass media, social media, by using educational institutions and authoritarian and anti-democracy political parties such as the China KMT – without resorting to “easier/quicker” blood and soil and authoritarian constructs. How Taiwanese citizens decolonize the authoritarian and colonialist-imperialist mode of thinking about national identity – hence what democracy means and how it functions to preserve itself – is critical to the sustainability of this democratic nation. 15.7.2024


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14/07/2024 · 9:39 AM

How to preserve peace and deter war? “Japanese think tank’s war game over Taiwan exposes weaknesses. JFSS calls for closer coordination between Taipei, Washington, and Tokyo to fight future China threat,” Taiwan News. Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms.

How to preserve peace and deter war? “Japanese think tank’s war game over Taiwan exposes weaknesses. JFSS calls for closer coordination between Taipei, Washington, and Tokyo to fight future China threat,” Taiwan News. Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms. A quasi-official Japanese think tank holding a wargame with quasi-official Taiwanese officials is a breakthrough. Professor Lai’s calls for clarity from Japan and the US, and for direct communication and coordination between Taiwan Republic, Japan, and the US are important for the preservation of peace in the Indo-Pacific.

There is an endless argument over how to preserve peace and deter war. Advocates for strategic ambiguity, for example, assert that with ambiguity, America has been able to “manage” the military balance in the Indo-Pacific, while “double deterring” both sides of the Taiwan Strait from “escalating tensions” and causing war. This view ignores the fact that one cannot find major political figures in democratic Taiwan advocating for war or radical, instability-causing policies – unless one defines democratic sovereignty as provocative. The war talks are coming from the Chinese communists and their allies inside Taiwan and the Free World. This begs a question: if the Chinese communists had the military capability in the 1990s to invade and annex Taiwan, with none of the conciliatory, engagement-oriented, strategically ambiguous policies unchanged on the American side, are we certain that the Chinese communists would not have started a war back then? When the US and NATO were still attempting to reset their relationships with Putin, did his efforts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty subside? Did it modify his attempt to destroy Western democracies from within?

This leads to a strategic question: what do the Chinese communists want? There is a divide on this question regarding both the Chinese communists and Putin’s Russia. Some treat dictator Xi’s communist China and dictator Putin’s Russia as merely another great power, another normal nation in the dysfunctional family of nations. Based on that assumption, dictator Putin invaded Ukraine because NATO posed a threat, and Putin merely wanted to improve his nation’s security, and Xi has become increasingly belligerent because the Taiwanese dare to hold free and fair democratic presidential elections and chart their own ways. If only Ukraine and Taiwan would negotiate with Moscow and Beijing they argue – but to negotiate what? Well, negotiate away their own democratic sovereignty, and then there will be peace in our time.

What if the main source of friction is a disagreement over what the world order ought to be? An American-led postwar world order versus a return to a fragmented, regional powers-dominated sphere of influence order – a Social Darwinian, might makes right, a multipolar world full of regional imperialisms where the larger powers always have the right to militarily subdue their unfortunate smaller neighbors?

For the current phase of the Indo-Pacific crisis instigated by the Chinese communists, clarity from the US and Japan would go a long way to deter Chinese imperialism and militarism. Had dictator Putin known that the US and NATO would not allow his dictatorship to survive if he invaded Ukraine he would have made a different calculation. What we do know is that strategic ambiguity – Ukraine edition, coupled with attempts at dialogue, and even threats of economic sanctions, failed to deter Putin.

Ambiguity from the Free World aside, Putin also received erroneous information from his national security leaders, and the anti-democracy and anti-Ukraine forces inside Ukraine. This is where Professor Lai’s advice to Japan and the US is most important. Much of what dictator Xi and the Chinese communists are hearing about Taiwan is coming from the anti-Taiwan and anti-democratic China KMT and its allies – that the Taiwanese military is brittle, that Taiwanese soldiers will surrender at the first sign of trouble, that DPP politicians will flee, that America is a paper tiger and will not put up a fight. Sound familiar? How did dictator Putin come to believe that an elite paratrooper unit landing at the Kyiv Airport would lead to a quick, painless victory to subdue democratic Ukraine? In modern Chinese history, the China KMT is always corrupt and inept, whereas the Chinese communists are evil but competent – a competency that is borne of cold-blooded rationality. This is why clarity in words (a Chinese-instigated war will end the communist dictatorship) and actions (official and public dialogue between national security leaders of Taiwan and the Free World and regular rotations of American and allied forces into Taiwan) from the US, Japan, and the Free World regarding the price Beijing will pay if they choose a war of annexation against Taiwan are the key to preserve peace. 14.7.2024

© Taiwan in World History 台灣與世界歷史. This site grants open access for educational and not-for-profit use. Maps and illustrations are borrowed under educational and not-for-profit fair use. If you are the rights holder and prefer not to have your work shared, please email TaiwanWorldHistory (at) Gmail (dot) com and the content will be removed.

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12/07/2024 · 10:27 AM

“[Taiwan] MND [Ministry of National Defense] outlines arms stockpiling policy. SCOPES, CALIBERS: The defense minister said the military has plans to develop a 6.8mm rifle, and is issuing optical sights, with all rifle-armed troops to get a scope,” Taipei Times. Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms.

“[Taiwan] MND [Ministry of National Defense] outlines arms stockpiling policy. SCOPES, CALIBERS: The defense minister said the military has plans to develop a 6.8mm rifle, and is issuing optical sights, with all rifle-armed troops to get a scope,” Taipei Times. Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms. The greatest threats to world peace and Taiwan’s national security are instability within domestic American politics, the rise of extremism and populism, and the revival of American isolationism.

This article should be read along with the reports on US Senate and House 2025 NDAA, articles linked below.

The questions asked by the anti-Taiwan and anti-democracy China KMT and People’s Party legislators are not due to national security – how can one care about “national” security if they do not consider Taiwan to be a “nation”? Instead, they are intended to assist the Chinese communists’ information warfare fomenting fear among Taiwanese citizens and creating a false sense that Taiwan strengthening its military will “provoke” a Chinese invasion. This is no different than some American and European academics and journalists assuming that Ukranian and Taiwanese democracies are by definition “provocative” and “escalatory” for the Russians and the Chinese dictators.

What is significant about this new civilian Minister of National Defense and his answers are the connections with the US House and Senate’s 2025 NDAA and the mandate for the Pentagon to establish a contingency stockpile to prepare for the growing China Threat. Another way to think about it is: that for decades Taiwanese leaders have focused on weapons/platforms and neglected logistics – dispersal, hardening of bases, electricity, water supply, communications, etc. The fact that this focus on logistics and training changed under President Tsai signaled Taiwanese civilian leaders’ seriousness – also indicating that President Tsai made significant inroads into the national security area – clearing out reactionary China KMT forces. President Tsai is the first democratically elected president in Taiwan to have made significant inroads into the national security area.

These four articles are also a good example of how closely the pro-Taiwan and pro-democracy, democratically elected leaders of Taiwan are working with the legislative and executive branches of the United States. Particularly noteworthy is the bipartisan American push for broader, more creative ways of increasing Taiwan’s national security – ammunition stockpiles are for the most acute of China Threats – integrating Taiwan into the US-led global military supply chains, focusing on geoeconomic ties in high technology, machinery, unmanned vehicles, aviation and space, agriculture, fisheries – along with educational and cultural ties, are just as important for safeguarding Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty.

Assuming relative political stability within the US and Taiwan, there are further steps needed beyond the munition stockpiles. Whether munition stockpiles are stored in and/or near Taiwan – units of American, Japanese, and allied forces must enter Taiwan and collaborate with Taiwanese military and civilian units. Only then will these forward-positioned stockpiles have any meaning. Taiwanese and American military planners, through these regular visits, can test and evaluate logistical issues on the ground. For example, during a Chinese invasion and attempted blockade, what are the harbors and airports that Taiwanese and allied forces must secure? Do the US, Japan, and allies have appropriate ships, unloading and loading vehicles, transport airplanes and helicopters? What are the key land routes and storage facilities for additional munitions to enter Taiwan and be safely dispersed and efficiently dispersed and used? What are the contingencies and backup plans? It has been decades since the US and Japanese militaries have had a presence in Taiwan – their return will not only signal resolve towards the Chinese communists but only by regularly sending military units into Taiwan can the US and Japanese military planners test and modify complex multinational military planning. 12.7.2024

US Senate bill requires arms stockpile for Taiwan. Bill also seeks US-Taiwan common operating picture, industrial base cooperation https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5900262

US bill calls for arms stockpile to aid Taiwan. BUILDING TIES: A US House version of an NDAA bill would require that the Pentagon report on efforts to bolster defense industry cooperation with Taiwan https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2024/06/16/2003819412

US House passes military aid for Taiwan. DETERRENCE: Along with US$500 million in military aid and up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees, the bill would allocate US$400 million to countering PRC influence https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2024/06/30/2003820091
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11/07/2024 · 9:35 AM

Bibliography: “[Taiwanese] Ministry plans 7 improved attack subs. PROPOSAL: The submarines, the first of which would enter into production in 2026, would fire Harpoon missiles and feature better combat systems than the ‘Hai Kun’,” Taipei Times. Taiwan Republic 台灣国, geostrategery, and world history classrooms.

Bibliography: “[Taiwanese] Ministry plans 7 improved attack subs. PROPOSAL: The submarines, the first of which would enter into production in 2026, would fire Harpoon missiles and feature better combat systems than the ‘Hai Kun’,” Taipei Times. Taiwan Republic 台灣国, geostrategery, and world history classrooms. These eight Taiwanese submarines are critical to Taiwan Republic’s ability to deter and defeat a Chinese invasion to annex Taiwan. If anything, the planned Taiwanese submarine fleet should be larger than the planned 8+2. These Taiwan-assembled submarines’ capabilities and their successful production serve Taiwan’s national security interest and therefore are important for vital American and Japanese national interests. The success of this submarine program is no less critical to the Free World than the AUKUS submarines.

There are important historical and contemporary contexts regarding these Taiwan-produced submarines. First, because of decades of contradictory and self-defeating US policy, Taiwan has not been able to obtain a substantial fleet of submarines from the 1950s until the 2020s – and at great cost in time and money to Taiwanese taxpayers. As with other major weapons that, because of misguided and failed US policies, forced Taiwan into domestic production, such as the AIDC’s IDF jet fighters, one may reasonably question whether it makes any sense for a nation the size of Taiwan to pursue domestic production of submarines. If the US is serious about facing the China Threat, this self-defeating pattern must be altered. Second, it is not clear what the Chinese Taipei leadership of the Ministry of National Defense (still Army-dominated and defeatist in outlook) – or even the Navy’s position is on these submarines. Third, a recent spate of news within the China KMT-dominated Taiwanese news media indicates complex information warfare against these submarines – with the first wave of attack concerning quality-reliability, then in line with the pro-China anti-democracy force’s tactics regarding vaccines and eggs, and green energy, evidence-free assertions of graft and unusually high cost. The most recent line of information warfare attacks appears to be suggestions that the submarines will prevent other domestic arms projects from proceeding.

Even though the 2024 Taiwan parliament has an anti-democracy and pro-China majority, which will cause the submarine project some delays, it is important to compare 2024 with 2000. Both had a pro-democracy and pro-Taiwan president, both with an anti-democracy anti-Taiwan parliament. President Chen of 2000 failed to push through the submarine program – DPP was far less experienced, and the US was still too ambivalent regarding the China Threat. In 2024 the global environment and political landscape in Taiwan Republic have changed. The success of this Taiwanese submarine program will require clarity and focus from policymakers from the US and the Free World. AUKUS may serve as a model – for these submarines to be assembled in Taiwan, but with technological expertise coordinated by the US, Japan, and NATO allies – ensuring that the Taiwanese submarines and their sailors will be able to communicate and coordinate with the allied forces led by the Indo-Pacific command. The US, Japan, Australia, and European democracies have great influence among Taiwanese citizens, even within the anti-democracy and pro-China China KMT and China People’s Party. It is important that the US and Japan not sit passively while the Chinese communists conduct their influence campaign against the Taiwan submarine program. 11.7.2024

「海鯤號」潛艦擬9月海試、明年第一季打操雷 後續艦料件陸續備妥 https://def.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/4729008

後續7艘國造潛艦 加配潛射魚叉飛彈 https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/paper/1655271

潛艦後續量產案敲定3+2+2 國防部提出2840億元概算分15年編列 https://def.ltn.com.tw/article/breakingnews/4727929

顧立雄︰海鯤號先通過海試 後7艘預算才動支 https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/paper/1655272

Tommy Chi諸葛風雲的異想世界 https://www.youtube.com/@sunponyboy/featured

Armed with a heavyweight torpedo made to ‘break ships in half,’ Taiwan’s first homemade submarine represents a new threat to China’s navy https://ca.news.yahoo.com/armed-heavyweight-torpedo-made-break-100001579.html

Taiwan to build 7 new submarines with Harpoon missiles in $284 billion project https://armyrecognition.com/news/navy-news/2024/taiwan-to-build-7-new-submarines-with-harpoon-missiles-in-284-billion-project

Budget for Taiwan’s next 7 submarines to wait until Narwhal tests completed. First indigenous submarine still undergoing harbor tests https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5899080

Across the Indo-Pacific, militaries scramble to put more submarines in the water. Several US allies in the region have launched new subs this year, and others are making plans to buy them, reflecting a long-standing focus on undersea warfare that is only intensifying. https://breakingdefense.com/2024/06/across-the-indo-pacific-militaries-scramble-to-put-more-submarines-in-the-water/

【潛艦國造】賴清德點頭！7艘海鯤級後續艦成本暴增逾2840億　為期15年三階段開工建造 https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?Type=1&SerialNo=205570

【潛艦國造】海鯤號9月進行SAT海上測試　美軍購驗測操雷設備年底抵台 https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?Type=1&SerialNo=205655

【震海案延後】潛艦量產排擠效應！「小神盾艦」計劃闖關失利　未排進明年度國防預算 https://www.upmedia.mg/news_info.php?Type=1&SerialNo=205588

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05/07/2024 · 8:00 AM

President Tsai Ing-wen and this emerging Taiwanese national identity, part four, “民族認同度又上升！近8成自認台灣人 中國人再下跌剩不到1成,” 自由时报 Liberty Times。 Taiwan Republic 台灣国, national identity, and world history classrooms.

President Tsai Ing-wen and this emerging Taiwanese national identity, part four, “民族認同度又上升！近8成自認台灣人 中國人再下跌剩不到1成,” 自由时报 Liberty Times。 Taiwan Republic 台灣国, national identity, and world history classrooms. “台灣民意基金會週四發布「台灣人最新的民族認同」即時民調，結果顯示有高達76.8%自認為自己是台灣人，當中有58%屬「強烈認同」，18.8%屬「輕度認同」。至於自認為自己是中國人僅有6.6%（2.9%「強烈認同」），9.5%自認為自己是台灣人也是中國人。另外有5.2%表示沒意見，1.8%不知道或拒答。”  Recent polling from Taiwan shows that a solid, governing majority of 76.8% of Taiwanese citizens identify themselves as “Taiwanese,” – 6.6% of residents of Taiwan identify themselves as “Chinese,” with 9.5% self-identifying as “both.”

National identity is dynamic and fluid – what is noteworthy about the Tsai era is how Tsai opened the door for pro-democracy and anti-communist non-green, non-DPP citizens to redefine what “status quo” entails. A lot of this is achieved because Dr. Tsai is a measured and moderate leader. Taiwan’s increased global status during her administration did not hurt – this increased, normalizing national status among the global democracies worked in tandem with the radicalization of the pro-China, anti-democracy China KMT (and later, the China People’s Party) inside Taiwan, as well as the belligerence and imperialism of dictator Xi and his Chinese communist regime.

Two other areas to ponder on how one develops one’s own national identity. Authoritarian, top-down Leninist parties like the China KMT and Chinese Communist Party obsess with brainwashing – education, propaganda, rules, threats, guilt trips, blood and soil nonsense. They cannot fathom that this emerging Taiwanese national identity can be organic and bottom-up – hence they accuse the ruling DPP of “brainwashing.” They only know what they practice themselves. Whereas in a globalized, cosmopolitan, diverse, and democratic nation like Taiwan, this emerging national identity is far more fluid and unpredictable. Twenty-three million citizens with diverse backgrounds and life experiences are connected to globalized media, with Taiwan as a top world trading partner, and tens of millions of students, businesspeople, and guest workers coming to and from Taiwan. Democratically elected leaders like Tsai and Lai may shape and respond to emerging national identity – they may even attempt to set boundaries, such as stipulating that the process ought to be peaceful democratic sovereignty. What authoritarians like Xi and Ma and Ke and others cannot countenance is that national identity in a democratic nation cannot be dictated from above.

And so while a poll like this is fascinating, it is also a snapshot subject to closer, careful interpretations – down to what it means to be “Taiwanese.” To be “Taiwanese” in 1945, in 1979, in 1996, and in 2024 would have recurring, consistent ideas, coupled with newer, evolving, changing meanings. 

What President Tsai has not been given credit for is how she used the tools of statecraft to give Taiwan the necessary preconditions for realizable democratic sovereignty – military power, strategic alliances, international reputation, and economic health. Her most remarkable accomplishment with this emerging Taiwanese national identity, however, is the fact that in her highly successful eight-year terms, she has never once dictated what future Taiwanese citizens must choose regarding their nationhood. Authoritarians like the Chinese Communist Party, China KMT, the China People’s Party, or an authoritarian-reactionary ideology like Confucianism, presumed the right of the leaders/elders/elites to instruct their lessers/subjects and those who have yet to be born what they must and must not choose. This coheres well with the destructive blood and soil varieties of populist nationalism. President Tsai’s vision is democracy and human rights – the right of individual citizens to, without coercion, peacefully and democratically decide their fate. She has set an example that the US and much of Europe can learn from. 5.7.2024


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