Taiwan independence movement
The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of Taiwan as an independent and sovereign state, as opposed to Chinese unification in accordance with the One China policy or the status quo of co-existence in cross-strait relations.
Taiwan's political status can be regarded as ambiguous. Mainland China, under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, claims the island of Taiwan as a province of the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China consisting of Taiwan and other islands under its control exercises full autonomy in its internal governance and already conducts official diplomatic relations with and is recognized by 11 member states of the United Nations and the Holy See. The use of "independence" for Taiwan can be ambiguous. If some supporters articulate that they agree to the independence of Taiwan, they may either be referring to the notion of formally creating an independent Taiwanese state called the Republic of Taiwan or to the notion that Taiwan has become synonymous with the current Republic of China and is already independent. Since 2016, the current government, led by the independent-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, has asserted that there is no need for a formal push for independence through legal means, maintaining that Taiwan is already an independent country called ROC.
The Taiwan independence movement is supported by the DPP and the broader Pan-Green Coalition given the threat posed to its sovereignty, regionalist identity, liberal democratic system and human rights. Radical activists advocate the ideal goal of de-Sinicization and Taiwanization of the island and society, although that sentiment is not always shared by the Pan-Green establishment, which favors a more pragmatic status quo under the ROC. The movement is opposed by the Kuomintang and the broader Pan-Blue Coalition, which seeks to retain the somewhat ambiguous status quo of the ROC under the so-called "1992 Consensus" or gradually "reunify" with mainland China at some point under the ROC. The process for a constitutional amendment in ROC or national territory alternation must be initiated by one-fourth of the members of the Legislative Yuan, then voted in the Legislative Yuan with at least three-fourths members attended and by a three-fourths supermajority, then approved by majority popular vote in a referendum.
The Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic of China strongly oppose Taiwanese independence, believing that Taiwan and mainland China are two portions of a single country's territory, and regards any moves toward independence as separatism and potentially triggering a military response under the Anti-Secession Law. According to the PRC's interpretation, the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Declaration and the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 establish that Taiwan is part of the PRC under international law. The PRC has officially maintained its position of "peaceful unification" of Taiwan under a "one country, two systems" formula but does not rule out using military force, if necessary, to "reunify" the island should formal independence be declared. Under 2024 legal guidelines, the PRC regards advocating for Taiwan independence, regardless of jurisdiction, as a criminal offense that can be subject to capital punishment.
History
Background
is an island in East Asia. The indigenous population, who came from nearby China, spoke Austronesian languages. These aboriginal people have lived on the island for over 6000 years and, before 1620, were its only inhabitants. Taiwan has been occupied by several nations, including Spain, the Netherlands, Ming and Qing dynasty China, and Japan.After its defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Kuomintang, which had ruled the Republic of China since 1928, retreated to Taiwan where it ruled until Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party became president in 2000.
Early
From a pro-independence supporter's point of view, the movement for Taiwan independence began under Qing rule in the 1680s which led to a well known the saying, "Every three years an uprising, every five years a rebellion". Taiwan Independence supporters compared Taiwan under KMT rule to South Africa under apartheid.The Taiwan independence movement under Japan was supported by Mao Zedong in the 1930s as a means of freeing Taiwan from Japanese rule. Taiwanese society and culture was heavily shaped by the Japanese occupation of the island, which promoted Japanization policies that co-opted local elites with the Imperial Japanese Army. This sparked off localist resistance against the Japanese by both indigenous peoples and native-born Han Chinese-Taiwanese, which was eventually suppressed.
With the end of World War II in 1945, by issuing "General Order No. 1" to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, the Allies agreed that the Republic of China Army under the KMT would "temporarily occupy Taiwan, on behalf of the Allied forces."
Early CCP position on Taiwan
Martial law period
The modern-day political movement for Taiwan independence dates back to the Japanese colonial period, but it only became a viable political force within Taiwan in the 1990s. Taiwanese independence was advocated periodically during the Japanese colonial period, but was suppressed by the Japanese government. These efforts were the goal of the Taiwanese Communist Party of the late 1920s. Unlike current formulations, and in line with the thinking of the Comintern, such a state would have been a proletarian one. With the end of World War II in 1945, Japanese rule ended, but the subsequent autocratic rule of the KMT later revived calls for local rule. However, it was a movement supported by the Chinese students who were born on the Island and not associated with KMT. It found its roots in the US and Japan. In the 1950s, a Republic of Taiwan Provisional Government was set up in Japan. Thomas Liao was nominally the President. At one time it held quasi-official relations with the newly independent Indonesia. This was possible mainly through the connections between Sukarno and the Provisional Government's Southeast Asian liaison, Chen Chih-hsiung, who had assisted in Indonesia's local resistance movements against Japanese rule.After the transfer of power from Japan to the ROC, the focus of the movement was as a vehicle for discontent from the native Taiwanese against the rule of "mainlanders". The February 28 Incident in 1947 and the ensuing martial law that lasted until 1987 contributed to the period of White Terror on the island, persecuting not only indigenous leftists, but liberals and democracy advocates as well.
Between 1949 and 1991, the official position of the ROC government on Taiwan was that it was the legitimate government of all of China and it used this position as justification for authoritarian measures such as the refusal to vacate the seats held by delegates elected on the mainland in 1947 for the Legislative Yuan. The Taiwan independence movement intensified in response to this and presented an alternative vision of a sovereign and independent Taiwanese state. This vision was represented through a number of symbols such as the use of Taiwanese in opposition to the school-taught Mandarin Chinese.
Several scholars drafted various versions of a constitution, as both political statement or vision and as intellectual exercise. Most of these drafts favor a bicameral parliament rather than presidential system. In at least one such draft, seats in the upper house would be divided equally among Taiwan's established ethnicities. In the 1980s the Chinese Nationalist government considered publication of these ideas criminal. In the most dramatic case, it decided to arrest the pro-independence publisher Cheng Nan-jung for publishing a version in his Tang-wai magazine, Liberty Era Weekly. Rather than giving himself up, Cheng self-immolated in protest. Other campaigns and tactics toward such a State have included soliciting designs from the public for a new national flag and anthem. More recently the Taiwan Name Rectification Campaign has played an active role. More traditional independence supporters, however, have criticized name rectification as merely a superficial tactic devoid of the larger vision inherent in the independence agenda.
Various overseas Taiwan independence movements, such as the Formosan Association, World United Formosans for Independence, United Young Formosans for Independence, Union for Formosa's Independence in Europe, United Formosans in America for Independence, and Committee for Human Rights in Formosa, published "The Independent Formosa" in several volumes with the publisher "Formosan Association." In "The Independent Formosa, Volumes 2–3", they tried to justify Taiwanese collaboration with Japan during World War II by saying that the "atmosphere covered the whole Japanese territories, including Korea and Formosa, and the Japanese mainlands as well", when Taiwanese publications supported Japan's "holy war", and that the people who did it were not at fault.
The anti-communist KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek, President of the ROC on Taiwan, believed that the Americans were going to plot a coup against him in collusion with Taiwan independence activists. In 1950, Chiang Ching-kuo became director of the secret police, which he remained until 1965. Chiang also considered some people who were friends to Americans to be his enemies. An enemy of the Chiang family, Wu Kuo-chen, was kicked out of his position of governor of Taiwan by Chiang Ching-kuo and fled to America in 1953. Chiang Ching-kuo, educated in the Soviet Union, initiated Soviet style military organization in the ROC Military. He reorganized and Sovietized the political officer corps, surveillance, and KMT party activities. Opposed to this was Sun Li-jen, who was educated at the American Virginia Military Institute. Chiang orchestrated the controversial court-martial and arrest of General Sun Li-jen in August 1955, for plotting a coup d'état with the American CIA against his father Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT. The CIA allegedly wanted to help Sun take control of Taiwan and declare its independence.
During the martial law era lasting until 1987, discussion of Taiwan independence was forbidden in Taiwan, at a time when recovery of the mainland and national unification were the stated goals of the ROC. During that time, many advocates of independence and other dissidents fled overseas, and carried out their advocacy work there, notably in Japan and the United States. Part of their work involved setting up think tanks, political organizations, and lobbying networks in order to influence the politics of their host countries, notably the United States, the ROC's main ally at the time, though they would not be very successful until much later. Within Taiwan, the independence movement was one of many dissident causes among the intensifying democracy movement of the 1970s, which culminated in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident. The DPP was eventually formed to represent dissident causes.