the first Chinese expedition to Taiwan was sent by an emperor, returning with the conclusion

it wasn't of much value. Boy would the centuries prove him wrong.

Taiwan is a 13,000 square mile hilly and forested island roughly 100 miles from mainland China

(1). Sea and air lanes pass by and over Taiwan, as it's strategically located southwest

of Japan, north of the Philippines, and northeast of Vietnam. It's also the vital northeast

corner of the hotly contested South China Sea.

To the south, the Bashi channel sits between Taiwan and the Philippines (3). Between mainland

China and Taiwan lies the Taiwan Strait. Within the Taiwan Strait are a series of small islands

known as the Penghu, controlled by Taiwan. But one of the things that makes Taiwan unique

is that many islands between the main island and mainland China, the People's Republic

of China, are in dispute. Notable examples: Taiwan claims and controls the Matsu Archipelago

and Kinmen islands, though as well later see, these islands so very close to the Chinese

mainland are not only disputed, but have been subject to artillery bombardment, fortification,

and even invasion.

Just above Taiwan lies Yonaguni Island, one of Japan's most southern islands- far closer

than the 600 mile-away Japanese mainland. I like how author Jonathan Manthorpe in his

History of Taiwan described Yonaguni as a quote “period dot at the base of the question

mark formed by Japan's island chain,” (12,25). So, a geographical conundrum accompanies

a cultural one we'll address later: depending on your perspective, Taiwan can appear close

to both China *and Japan. An important detail, as we'll see.

And with that, welcome explorers, to the first episode of 'Mapping History'. Writing,

producing, and animating a video about the intersections of geopolitics and history takes

a long time. So if, and only if you're financially able, consider going to patreon dot com slash

william c fox. Thanks to Frank, the most recent Patron to join.

In this video we're going to talk about Taiwan from the start of recorded history

until now, and I'm gonna take a swing at answering the question: is Taiwan part of

China?

Dynasties and governments in exile have fled there. Invasions have been launched there.

Western powers have tried to root themselves in the East there. Trading posts have been...posted

there. Taiwan is a naval crossroads- crosscurrent, whatever the naval term for that would be.

It's mountainous ranges prevented full control of the island by any outside power for at

least centuries- that's what we have records of.

Its people reflect this heritage as well. It has an indigenous population separate from

Han Chinese, though Neolithic sites indicate a shared heritage (2,86). Those Indigenous

people make up about 2% of the population today, commingled, conquered, sharing the

island with early southeast asian ocean nomads, Han settlers, Japanese fisherman, Mainland

Chinese refugees, and more.

As mentioned, Chinese records reference Taiwan beginning in the 3rd century BCE (7). But

until the 1600's, outside visitors to Taiwan were mostly fishermen, with a sprinkling of

outcasts and pirates too. This all changed in the 17th century, when the Dutch, English,

Spanish, Japanese, and two different Chinese dynasties set their eyes on the valuable island.

The first outsiders to have a go at controlling all of Taiwan were the Dutch, specifically

the Dutch East India Company, who constructed a fortification on the island in 1630. They

estimated just a thousand Han Chinese were living on the island at that time, who had

settled alongside indigenous people in the preceding centuries (2,87;7).

This number would increase rapidly after 1644, as the collapse of the Ming Dynasty to the

Qing Dynasty on the Chinese mainland sent refugees over the Taiwan Strait. Zheng Chenggong,

a holdout leader of Ming forces, was able to keep territory in Southeast China until

1662, but then was forced by the Ching to retreat off the mainland. As a last resort,

he laid siege to the Dutch-controlled Taiwan, succeeding in taking the island from the Europeans,

and establishing mainland-originated Chinese control over Taiwan for the first time (3).

Ming control of Taiwan lasted 20 years, until 1683, when the Qing Dynasty finally left the

mainland and conquered Taiwan (4&5). Taiwan was now an integrated part of mainland China.

To date, the Ching rule over Taiwan was longer than any other power that had, or would come

to control the island- over 200 uninterrupted years.

And this is a critical period for understanding the fluctuating national identity of the Taiwanese.

It is during this period when some identity with the mainland was able to develop. That's

going to be important when looking at three other periods. First, the Japanese occupation

of Taiwan, the end of the Chinese Civil War, and the modern day. Let's start with the

Japanese.

During the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894, between China's Qing Dynasty and Japan,

the surgent Japanese had eyes for many Qing possessions, including Taiwan. The war demonstrated

the weakness of the Qing, which was forced to sue for peace in 1895. And in the Treaty

of Shimonoseki, the Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan (2,202).

Now, I'm just gonna spoil it here so we can have a productive conversation about this

period in Taiwan's History: The Japanese held control of Taiwan from 1895 until their

World War II surrender to the US and Allied Powers in 1945. 1895 to 1945- that means during

a 50-year period in relatively recent history, Taiwan was controlled not by the Chinese,

not by imperial western powers, but by an imperial Eastern power- Japan- something that

left a distinct mark on the island and the identity of its inhabitants, a mark which

the Taiwanese debate and define to this day. When the Republican Chinese government arrived

in Taiwan after World War II, they found a people who could speak Japanese, dressed Japanese-

culturally they looked like the enemy that had ravaged mainland China in the war. But

how did the people of Taiwan come to see themselves during this period?

Upon acquisition of Taiwan in 1895, Japanese political leaders were faced with a 5-month

war of resistance, and once concluded, a Taiwan in difficult circumstances- the ravages of

war, disease, ethnic tensions. To deal with this, the Japanese chose harsh governing policies,

and coupled that with repressive cultural policies- they had foreign governors, and

they forced Japanese culture onto the inhabitants. The Japanese felt a paternal superiority to

their colonists, forcing people to speak Japanese, take Japanese names, wear Kimonos and other

traditional garb.

But here's the rub. Economic development came under the Japanese as well. Agricultural

exports were expanded with new farming practices and subsidies, then diverted from their previous

destinations on mainland China to Japan. They brought education reform and new schools,

banking, currency, taxed previously untaxed land for use in expanded postal, energy, information

and road infrastructure (2). The colonizers invested in public health, disease treatments,

hospitals- a medical university. There's a solid rundown of all this in Murray Rubinstein's

Taiwan: A New History, listed in the description.

Before we get to World War II, an important change in mainland China. In 1912, the Qing

Dynasty, the dynasty which ceded Taiwan to the Japanese, was replaced by the Republic

of China, the ROC. During the second world war, western allies like FDR and Churchill

would come to see the Republic of China, and its leader Chiang Kai-shek not only as the

rightful government of mainland China, but of Taiwan as well (10). A return of Taiwan,

a retrocession, was planned should the allies prevail.

But while this retrocession was planned in cigar-filled rooms, World War II was proving

disastrous for Taiwan. Geographically like a natural aircraft carrier, Taiwan was strategically

located near the coast, a launch point for Japan's ambitions in mainland China and

the Philippines. 200,000 Taiwanese men fought for Japan in the war, 40,000 died (9). Some

were patriotic, others were motivated by increased food rations. Encouraged volunteerism eventually

turned to conscription. Taiwanese women were sent as 'comfort women' for Japanese soldiers.

It became clear as the war progressed into 1945, and the focus drifted from Europe and

onto the Pacficic, that control of Taiwan would be returning to China. The Cairo Declaration,

produced when Chiang Kai-shek met with FDR and Churchill proclaimed: “all the territories

Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa [that's Taiwan], and

The Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic

of China.” In August of 1945, Japan's unconditional surrender went into effect,

and the Cairo Declaration's implementation began. Taiwan would be part of China once

more.

In October 1945, Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China ended Japanese colonial rule and

instituted a new governing structure for Taiwan. While there was excitement about the end of

colonial rule, the young and unprofessional Republic of China soldiers that came to replace

the Japanese soldiers foreshadowed the difficulty of ROC governance. In a documentary I watched

on this, one guy described it as, “the dog leaves, but the pig comes.” (9)

We're flirting with dangerous territory here, but just imagine a normal person looking

at the previous group, the harsh Japanese. And then the new and corrupt Republic of China.

What were the Taiwanese supposed to feel about their situation? Nostalgia for their former

colonizers? Things were uncomfortable.

Stangely, Taiwan was ahead of the mainland which came to rule over it: trains, phone

line, energy production and consumption- metrics indicative of economic development- metrics

which wouldn't be matched per capita on the mainland until the 80's. Now you can

see the dilemma. Maybe why some Taiwanese would eventually come to desire independence.

Steven Phillips put it a little better: quote “both Taiwan and mainland China had changed

so much between 1895 and 1945 politically, socially, and economically that the retrocession

was less the restoration of historical ties than the attempt to forge an entirely new

relationship.” (2,275).

I've already alluded to the amateurish, sometimes shoe-less boy soldiers of the ROC

that landed on Taiwan. They acted like conquerors of a foreign people, looting, supplemented

poor pay with stolen property from Taiwanese homes.

But this was a mere symptom of Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt governance, and general disregard

for Taiwan- a place, might I spoil the story a little, Chiang Kai-shek is going to very

desperately need very soon.

Taiwanese were largely excluded from the new governing structure. Administrators reappropriated

business, property, industry to themselves (12,190). In this way, it was like a new form

of colonialism rather than a reuniting with China. Ordinary Taiwanese started going hungry,

and getting sick.

Every source I read in preparation for this video spends time talking about just how bad,

corrupt, incompetent, cruel, indifferent to suffering the ROC officials and their enforcers

were. Even the US State Department would come to recognize the problems internally. But

the US didn't stop helping Chiang Kai-shek because: on the mainland, standing opposite

of Chiang Kai-shek were Mao's communists.

So every source mentions the mal governance. And then all the sources zoom in on a moment

when the tensions between the Taiwanese and their...administrators boiled over. A cascade

of violent political repression- decades of it, and it all traces back to some cigarettes.

On February 27th, 1947, a widow in Taipei was caught selling contraband cigarettes.

The ROC enforcers took her cigarettes and her cash, and tried to arrest her. The widow

begged for leniency, and the soldiers, well, they bashed her on the head with the butt

of a rifle. With a crowd forming, the soldiers realized they had stepped in it, and tried

to leave. But they were followed, and ended up firing into the crowd. They hit several

people- one died.

From here the violence grows. The next day, as news of the incident spread, protests formed

against the Republic of China rule. Crowds that gathered around the governor's residence

were met with machine gun fire. Mass protests nationwide follow. Taiwanese civilians appropriated

government offices, took control of their island. Chiang Kai-shek declared martial law,

sending in thousands of mainland Kuomintang troops to put down this uprising.

But they didn't just put down the movement in the streets- they started something that

would come to be known as 'the White Terror', the Kuomintang soldiers imported from the

mainland killed Taiwanese by the thousands: first the people in the streets questioning

their rule; next, they rounded up intellectuals, professionals, students- anyone who posed,

in their eyes, a potential threat to mainland rule. At least 10,000 were rounded up and

murdered- some estimates go as high as 28,000 (13).

What started after the cigarette scuffle is known as the February 28th incident, 2-2-8.

The martial law declared in this moment lasted 38 years, long after Chiang Kai-shek's death.

And keep in mind, this is before Chiang Kai-shek is expelled from mainland China by Mao, so

this is the relationship developed between the Nationalists and the Taiwanese without

any knowledge of what was to come- that the Nationalists, like the Ming Dynasty, would

flee from the mainland, expelled, relying entirely on Taiwan for their future very soon.

And by soon, I mean two years, 1949. The communist forces of Mao found themselves in an advantageous

position against Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang Nationalist forces. From 1945-1949, the Nationalists

lost ground to the communists. By the end of 1948, over 30,000 refugees from the mainland

were arriving in Taiwan every day (2,299). Mao controlled both Beijing and Nanking, and

Chiang Kai-shek had to retreat from the mainland to.. well, we know: to Taiwan.

"Hey guys, ni hao. Know we were repressing y'all and - violence. But I was wondering

if you know, my army and I, and around 2 million refugees could crash on the couch for a couple

nights, set up a base of operations against the communists…?."

And that was that, here are the two China's: the Republic of China (still claiming control

of the entire mainland) was now contained on the island of Taiwan. And everyone was

waiting for the new People's Republic of China under Mao, which now controlled the mainland,

to come across the Taiwan Strait, and put an end to the whole thing, to eject Chiang

Kai-shek, control Taiwan, and conclude the Chinese Civil War. Any day now.

The governing system established from the fall of the Japanese empire between 1945 until

1949, the quasi-colonial rule from the Nationalist mainland, then the move of that Nationalist

power from the mainland onto the island itself- this system established in the interlude period

set the tone for the following decades. The people of Taiwan would not have a say in their

governance, any attempt to acquire it would result in the dissidents disappearance, and