Where is Taiwan?
Taiwan is an island, which is about 100 miles from the southeast China. Japan is to the North East of the island and the Philippines are to the South. The capital city of Taiwan is Taipei city and the island has a population of about 23 million people.
The History of China and Taiwan
The history of the island dates back to the 17th century when Taiwan at first came under the control of China. This happened when the Qing dynasty started their control and command over it. In the year 1895 China was forced to give the island to Japan after losing the Sino-Japanese war.
When Japan lost the World War II, China took control of Taiwan again.
Mao Zedong’s Communist Party won in the year 1949 and took control in Beijing.
What was left of the nationalist party which lost including Chiang Kai-shek; also known as Kuomintang- were forced to flee to Taiwan, where they ruled for the next several decades.
Pointing to this history China says that Taiwan was originally a Chinese province. But the people from Taiwan also take the example of the same history to argue that they were never a part of the modern Chinese state, which was first formed after the 1911 revolution- or the People’s Republic of China which was established under Mao in 1949.
The Kuomintang is one of Taiwan’s most Important political parties which ruled the island for a well-known part of its history.
In today’s time, only 13 countries and (the Vatican) identified Taiwan as a sovereign country, China is seen putting noticeable ambassadorial pressure on other countries to not identify Taiwan or is against anything which insinuate recognition.
China claims that “reunification” of Taiwan and China is of extreme importance and that they could bring about the “reunification” be it strengthening of economic ties or military confrontation.
If there is a military confrontation of Taiwan and China, China’s forces will be more in number than those of Taiwan, which gives them a huge opportunity for the apparent “reunification”.
Us spends the most amount of money on defense and China is second in number which ranges in developing capabilities, from naval powers to missile technologies, aircrafts and cyberattacks. Most of China’s military power is focused somewhere else but overall, when we talk about the active-duty personnel for example there is an enormous difference between the two sides.
Relationship between China and Taiwan is appearing to deteriorate sharply after Ms Pelosis’s visit which was condemned by Beijing as “extremely dangerous”.
China ramped up pressure by sending military aircrafts into Taiwan’s air defense zone, which is a self-declared area, where foreign aircrafts are identified, controlled and monitored in the interests of national security.
Last year the numbers increased rapidly as the aircrafts reported saw a peak in October 2021, with approximately 56 inclusions in one day, Taiwan’s defense minister stated that relations were the worst they had been for 40 years.
Taiwan decided to make the data on plane inclusions public in the year 2020.
The Chinese military sent seven ships and 71 planes towards Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force which was directed at the island. Taiwan’s defense ministry on Monday said, that this happened after China was angered at the provisions related to Taiwan in a US Annual defense spending bill which was passed on Saturday.
China is harassing self-ruled Taiwan with military equipment; they claim that Taiwan is a part of their territory. The People’s Liberation Army of the Communist Party has sent numerous drones, planes and ships towards the island on a daily basis.
During the hours between 6:00 AM on Sunday and 6:00 AM on Monday, 47 of the Chinese planes crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, which is an unofficial boundary that was accepted by both sides according to Taiwan’s Ministry of national defense.
The planes that China sent towards Taiwan included 11 J-1 fighters, 18 J-16 fighter jets, 6 Su-30 fighters and drones.
Taiwan stated that it monitors the Chinese moves through its own Navy vessels, and on its land-based missile systems.
It also said that the PLA has been holding joint combat patrols in the waters around Taiwan.
The authorities of legislation enlarged security cooperation with Taiwan regarding the Indo-Pacific region, it needs an enlarged cooperation with India on emerging defense technologies, logistics and readiness.
The Chinese military often uses large military exercises which demonstrate force and response to the US government actions in support of Taiwan.
In August, in response to the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan-China conducted large live-fire military exercises.
“A firm response to the ongoing U.S.-Taiwan provocation and escalation,” the spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command-Shi Yi, of the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military, said in a statement Sunday night.
The U.S. defense bill of 858 billion dollars gives authority of up to $10 billion in military accord assistance to Taiwan over five years and speeds up the procurement process of the weapons for the island, Washington has unofficial relationships with it.
Taiwan welcomed the measure; while China said some of its provisions are going to cause “serious damage to the peace and stability in the Strait of Taiwan”.