The Taiwan Navy in the 1950s robbed British, Polish, and Soviet merchant ships in the Taiwan Strait
china/taiwan news
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You, like many non-Chinese, consciously or subconsciously, assume Taiwan is an independent country and its relationship with mainland China is that between two countries. That is totally wrong. Taiwan and mainland China, for practical and principled reasons, are in a state of unfinished civil war, dating back to the late 1940's. This is by far the most accurate description. Therefore, there is no border between the two, temporary or permanent. There is not even a temporary peace agreement, there has been truce, on and off. In other words, war and conflict can break anytime.
Before the late 1990's, Taiwan had air superiority over mainland; its military aircraft regularly flew over the so-called mid-line over the Taiwan Strait, simply because it could. Mainland China military aircraft, on the other hand, had to fly close to the shore along the mainland because it was at disadvantage relative to Taiwan air force. In 1999, the then Taiwan president Lee Tenghui declared that the cross-strait relationship is "special country-to-country relationship." That statement triggered a crisis, PLA aircraft started to fly across the so-called mid-line to the side of Taiwan. From then on, the two sides implicitly observe the mid-line during normal time. It might surprise many people, Taiwan's ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) during the '50s and '60s, established by the US, cut deep inside mainland. Taiwan military aircraft, including U2, regularly flew into mainland for intelligence gathering. Similarly, upto until the 90's, mainland warships regularly avoided crossing Taiwan Strait due to the superiority of Taiwan Navy.
These days, you see some foreigners, particularly westerners, often indignantly blame China "threats" democratic Taiwan. They speak like China is acting like a bully to a democratic, peace-loving independent nation. Well, democratic or not, it's irrelevant to the nature of the relationship; independent it is certainly not.
Both ROC's and PRC's constitutions stipulate that both sides belong to one China. Furthermore, PRC has anti-secession law specially for Taiwan, it stipulates several scenarios in which mainland China will use all necessary means to reunify Taiwan, including non-peaceful ones.
The US supported the nationalist government during China's civil war in late 1940's and "lost China." The US and PRC established formal diplomatic relationship only in 1979, seven years after Nixon visited China, thirty years after ROC government exiled to Taiwan. The primary obstacle for the normalization of Sino-US relationship is Taiwan problem. In the end, the two countries established diplomatic relationship only after the US agreed to cut diplomatic recognition of, abolish mutual defense treaty with, and withdraw military from Taiwan (断交、废约、撤军 ). After Korea War, the couple of times China and the US almost came to blow were all because of Taiwan (1958, 1996).
I'm writing this lengthy note to remind people that China will go to war for Taiwan should its sovereignty in Taiwan is under threat, either because Taiwan goes for de jure independence or enter into some kind of military relationship with a foreign actor. A lot of people in the west don't understand the nature and history of Taiwan's relationship with mainland China, and try to stir the pot just to spite on China's face. It's very dangerous.
Lol international waters. What planet do you live in.
As far the sensational headlines from the MSM in the last weeks about China intrude into 'Taiwan air space' lol.
As you said they are 'international airspace'. All China did was to fly into their self proclaimed ADIZ. But hay, there's no better news than the big bad boggieman, the CCP China to wip the western populace into anti China everthing.
I find myself increasingly having to argue with all my colleagues in the West. And their lines of argument inevitably comes from the MSM that they've read.
And today, what the US is doing going back on its own joint communicate with China. Is as the native Americans would've put it. 'White man talk with fork tongue'!
This is incorrect. The parties at war are not mainland China and Taiwan, but rather the two Chinese governments PRC and ROC.
For all intents and purposes, ROC is a government in exile. It has been expelled from the UN and is not a state. It has been occupying Taiwan since 1945 but has no sovereignty over it.
At the risk of replying for @weig2000 . I'm sure his perfectly capable. I'd just like to say reading all of his post, I think he knows that. It's just a typo error I think.
Like I said, both ROC and PRC claim in their constitutions to represent the whole China, including both mainland and Taiwan. ROC government was expelled from UN in 1971 and PRC was accepted to represent the entire China internationally. Since then, ROC government has only been recognized by more than a dozen very small countries in central America and South Pacific. All that is left is for the Chinese to resolve their issues internally and among themselves, hopefully peacefully but there is no guarantee.
Or are you saying ROC or PRC government has no sovereignty over Taiwan and Taiwan has somehow become independent? Well, absolutely no. That Taiwan belongs to China is the result of WWII (Cairo Declaration, etc.). Neither the ROC government nor the PRC government has given up Taiwan sovereingty. I'm fully aware that some Taiwan Independence supporters over the years came up with all kinds of silly, stupid and ultimately invalid claims that somehow China does not have sovereignty over Taiwan or at least tries to muddy the water. They don't really stand any serious scrutiny.
Perhabs, but IMO these communicates are only international treaties/agreements. They are not international "law" because both the US and china are fully independent and sovereign countries. They dont have to follow any international "law". As such, the US (and for that matter, china or any other country) can pull out of them if they wish to do so.
I agree.
For that matter, China announced to the world its peaceful reunification Taiwan policy on Jan 1, 1980, 15 days after the establishment of diplomatic relationship between PRC and the US. Before that, mainland China and ROC/Taiwan had been in actual state of wars with two sides engaging in constant hostile military activities, including artillery exchanges and military aircraft invasion. The only reason mainland China could not recover Taiwan before that was because PRC did not have sufficient military capacity.
That was then. Today is different. Some quarters in the US establishment are now advocating the US going back and recognizing Taiwan diplomatically. I don't know if the US government will do that, even under a Trump administration. But one thing is clear, PRC is not the PRC fifty years ago. The peaceful reunification proposal is not an international treaty or agreement. It's a goodwill gesture and one-side offer. The PRC Anti-Secession Law passed in 2015 states that PRC will resort to all necessary means to recover Taiwan if Taiwan drags its feet indefinitely to come to a reunification agreement, among other scenarios.
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