Taiwan was formerly known as
Formosa. Taiwan lies in the Pacific Ocean, about 160 Km from the South eastern
part of the mainland China. It is 400 Km long and has a 145 Km width at the
broadest point. It comprises of 86 islands.
In the 13th century
the Han Chinese fishermen started settling on the Penghu islands which are a
part of Taiwan. Very few outsiders visited the main island of Taiwan till the
16th century. Then it was visited by fishermen and traders from
Fujian in China, and also both by Chinese and Japanese pirates.
The Dutch East India Company
tried to set up an outpost on Penghu islands of Taiwan but was driven away by
the Ming forces from China. Finally in 1624 the company managed to set up a
stronghold called Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan. When they arrived they found the
area to be peopled by about 1500 Chinese. The company encouraged the Chinese
from Fujian to settle there and work on Dutch plantations. By the 1660’s 50,000
Chinese were living on the island.
In 1626 the Spanish came in and
made Northern Taiwan their base. But by 1642, the Dutch overthrew the Spanish.
After the Ming dynasty fell in
1644 in China, a vassal king was pressurized by the incoming Qing dynasty and
shifted his base to Taiwan and in the process expelled the Dutch from Taiwan.
The Dutch now aligned with the
Qing dynasty of China. They took a part of Taiwan and made a base but could not
make any further progress and withdrew from Taiwan altogether in 1668.
In 1683 the Qing dynasty of China
finally annexed Taiwan and ruled till 1895. Japan took Taiwan after a war with
China in 1895. A group of high officials loyal to the Chinese Qing dynasty
proclaimed the Republic of Formosa in 1895 against the Japanese rule and there
was guerrilla resistance to the Japanese in which 14000 Taiwanese were killed.
However, the rebellion against the Japanese was not successful.
In October 1944 during the 2nd
world war, the Formosa air battle was fought between the US carrier forces and
the Japanese forces in Taiwan. During the war, many Taiwanese joined the
Japanese forces.
However, after the war was over, most
of Taiwan’s Japanese numbering around 300,000 were expelled to Japan. The
Chinese forces assisted by teams of US forces landed in Taiwan and captured it.
Later Despite handing it over to China, the allies considered Taiwan to be under
the Japanese till 1952 the treaty of San Francisco as per which the possession
of Taiwan passed on to China.
However, there was a problem for the
transfer because in 1949 there was a communist revolution in China and the
Nationalists led by Chiang Kai Shek were defeated. Chiang took about 2 million
of his followers and migrated to Taiwan adding to the already present 6 million
population there. He then formed a Republic of China (ROC) government there.
Now the problem for Japan is
whether to hand over Taiwan to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) or to the Republic
of China (ROC) government? China did not attend the signing of the treaty of
San Francisco and Japan surrendered the areas to Formosa without actually
specifying to whether the surrender was to ROC or PRC.
Taiwan always claimed mainland
China while the mainland China in turn claimed Taiwan. But, as you can see,
right from 1895 onwards Taiwan had never been a part of China. That is 127
years till now. Yes, it was administered by China for 300 years before 1895,
but as long as it is not contiguous with China and the people are not willing
to accept China then China should not interfere with Taiwan. Moreover, the
forms of government adopted by both is diametrically opposite with one being a
democracy and the other Communist.
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