Taiwan and China
In your article, "Clinton's missile plans raise tensions
with Beijing" in the February 22 Militant, you state that
since the 1949 revolution in China, "the capitalist rulers of
Taiwan have tried unsuccessfully to win international
recognition of Taiwan as an independent nation." This isn't
true. They rejected independence, trying to convince the
world, with some success for more than twenty years, that they
were the legitimate government of all of China. Until Nixon's
action, the U.S. government recognized the Republic of China,
Taiwan, as China. To claim independence would have ceded
victory to the revolution and the People's Republic
government.
I really don't know much about it, but it was then an important part of world politics. It was comical as well. The Chinese "congress," in Taipei, consisted mostly of very old men representing electoral districts inside of China. They were, needless to say, rather hard to unseat.
Talk of independence was viewed as defeatist. In recent years, a new, opposition bourgeois party claiming to support independence and to defend the rights of native Taiwanese has grown. The current president is from that party. The mayor's office in Taipei, however, was recently recaptured by the Kuomindong party. I don't think the "Taiwanese" have a program for independence. It's just a demagogic appeal by a section of the ruling class. I think it's viewed that way there, too. It also, of course, gives some substance to the "democratization" of the country.
I believe the capitalist rulers, with the limited room to maneuver world politics gives them, are simply positioning themselves to profit from some Hong Kong-type relationship with China in the future. There is already a lot of Taiwanese investment in China. Many jobs have "left" Taiwan for China, among other places.
I visited Taiwan for a week and a half last year. It doesn't appear to be an armed camp. Less than here. I know there is politics there. My in-laws spoke of youth protest movements some years ago. My wife claims a majority wants to be a part of China. More than anything because it would be safer. Even the Taiwanese natives (excluding the real indigenous peoples; a very small minority) view themselves as Chinese. They are descendants of immigrants from Fujien, starting no more than 500 years ago, most much more recent.
Marty Anderson
Brooklyn, New York
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