Why there was no thought of 'Taiwan independence' before 1945

Editor's note: Zhang Wan is a current affairs commentator. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

"When the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, the people of Taiwan celebrated the return to China all over the island. That means there was no consciousness of 'Taiwan independence' at that time, neither any distortion of history by 'Taiwan independence' separatism," Chi Chia-lin, head of the Reunification Alliance Party in Taiwan, said.

What is the history of Taiwan? In 1624, Dutch colonialists invaded and occupied the southern part of Taiwan. In 1662, General Zheng Chenggong, a national hero, led an expedition and expelled the Dutch from the island. In 1894, Japan launched a war of aggression against China and the next year, the defeated Qing government was forced to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan. This was followed by persistent efforts by Taiwan compatriots to fight the Japanese colonialists.

In 1943, three countries – China, the United States and the United Kingdom – signed the Cairo Declaration, which stipulated that all the territories that Japan had stolen from the Chinese, including Taiwan, were to be returned to China. Two years later, in 1945, the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression finally came.

"As history is complicated, it leaves separatism space to grow. That's where the distortion of history by separatism started. They established and shaped the 'Taiwan independence consciousness.' So basically, from a historical perspective, 'Taiwan independence consciousness' is obviously fictional. Although it seems to be made with 'academic support,' it's based on selected academic materials to interpret distorted history," Chi said.

But how has the history of Taiwan been distorted? And why? The Taiwan region's new leader Lai Ching-te said on May 20, 2024 that "the city of Tainan (in southern Taiwan) marked Taiwan's links to globalization in 1624" – that's the year in which the Dutch started their 38-year colonial rule over Taiwan.

"The real history has been deliberately covered up. For example, the Dutch colonists slaughtered people in Taiwan during their colonization, but that was deliberately played down and blurred. Instead, they (the Taiwan authority) made up a distorted version of history through saying how wonderful the Dutch colonists were, and how Taiwan got their links to Western civilization and a parliamentary system through colonization. That's absolutely nonsense, baloney," Chi added.

Lai is using Taiwan's misery of being colonized as a tool to whitewash the current Taiwan authorities' vicious motive to solicit external support for their independence agenda. His predecessor Tsai Ing-wen manipulated and took advantage of "Taiwan indigenous people" to forge her political show of "consciousness of indigenous history."

"Currently, the number of indigenous people accounts for 1.7 percent of the population on the island. The reason why the Taiwan authorities are going all out to 'raise' the political and social status of the indigenous people is to construct the 'consciousness of aboriginal history'. Through a series of political manipulation, it aims to change the identity to make Taiwan a 'new' ethnic group of indigenous bloodlines, so as to deny the profound cultural connections across the Taiwan Straits. That's a very systematic political manipulation," Chi said.

Some indigenous people protested Tsai's political show, which didn't bring any substantially beneficial policies for the indigenous groups.

"What they (Lai's Democratic Progressive Party) have been doing is to disguise their unjust and vicious intentions through preaching 'justice' with the help of their propaganda machinery. A distorted history is used to seek 'independence,'" Chi said.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s attempts to smear the cultural connection across the Taiwan Straits will be a futile endeavor, as the history of China's last imperial dynasty shows. When General Zheng expelled the Dutch from Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty in 1662, the Qing court gradually set up more administrative bodies in Taiwan. In 1684, a Taiwan prefecture administration was set up under the jurisdiction of Fujian Province in southeast China. After about 200 years, Taiwan's status was upgraded and it became the 20th province of China in 1885.

From a historical perspective, Chi says the Qing Dynasty adopted a preferential approach to governing Taiwan, compared to its governance over other provinces:

"It employed a form of 'one country, two systems,' similar to the modern concept of 'one country, two systems.' On the mainland, all land could be bought and sold. In the island of Taiwan, land transactions were prohibited. Han Chinese were required to pay annual 'fan rent' to the indigenous people to support them and improve their living conditions. This was remarkable. In Taiwan, there was no implementation of the policy of integrating local rule into the centralized administrative system controlled directly by the imperial government, as it was in the southwest region under Emperor Yongzheng."

"Although there were discussions about it in Taiwan, the indigenous people were still in a very underdeveloped state and scattered across hundreds of tribes, making it difficult to implement the policy. Instead, the government recognized the indigenous people and allowed them to lease their land if their tribal leaders agreed to pledge allegiance to the imperial court. From a historical perspective, the Qing Dynasty's governance and management methods were far superior to those of the Western world and uniquely exceptional globally."

The Qing Dynasty ruled from the 17th century to the early 20th century. During the roughly same historical period, the indigenous people on the North American continent were treated differently.

"Take a look at the genocide of Native Americans, which lasted over a hundred years. Unlike this, the Qing Dynasty used government power to require ethnic Han Chinese to pay rent, and prohibited them to buy land from indigenous people to ensure the interest of local inhabitants. This approach, which lasted for 200 years, was to ensure the livelihood of indigenous people," Chi said.

The Qing government policy was based on an ancient Chinese Confucian political philosophy that emphasized governing through morality and benevolence rather than relying solely on laws or force.

"The preferential policy for indigenous people based on this political philosophy was remarkable. In the 18th to 19th century, it was implemented only in Taiwan ... However, the Qing Dynasty is portrayed now (by the DPP) as having seized indigenous lands."

Chi raised a question that's worth pondering: "Can history be distorted in this way?"

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