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In the light of the recent protests by Taiwanese students and activists against a planned trade deal with China, I have found myself in the uncomfortable position of criticising the demonstrations and, in some respects, defending the KMT administration led by Ma Yingjiu.  As I am not a citizen of the PRC or the ROC, I am not involved in party politics and I have no interest in changing the situation in these countries. I am a EU citizen, and that's the place where I want to be politically active. Therefore, when I talk about the politics of East Asia, I try to see things from different perspectives and not to side with one or the other party. Shortly, I am one of those who criticise or praise according to the concrete situation, and not out of ideological affiliation. As I have said in my last post , I think that the widespread support the current protests have received by international media, the expat community, and a part of Taiwan's media, are not only excessive, b

" The Chinese revolution is a key factor in the world situation and its victory is heartily anticipated by the people of every country, especially by the toiling masses of the colonial countries ," said Mao Zedong in a July 1936 interview . " When the Chinese revolution comes into full power, the masses of many colonial countries will follow the example of China and win a similar victory of their own… "  According to Mao, the Communist-led Chinese revolution was part of the " world revolution " directed against " anti-imperialist and anti-feudal " forces ( On New Democracy , January 1940). " Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin " had given the revolutionary avant-garde a weapon. " This weapon is not a machine-gun, but Marxism-Leninism ", he explained ( On the People's Democratic Dictatorship , June 1949).  Faithful to his ideology, Mao not only accepted the help and guidance of the Soviet Union, but he also helped &quo

As I explained in my previous post , the claim of the People's Republic of China to Taiwan derives from the nationalist tradition that developed in China after its tragic encounter with Western powers. In this post, I would like to show how the concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity in China have been shaped by the country's unequal relationship with Western imperialist states and how these concepts have become an integral part of Chinese nationalist discourse. Sovereignty and Territory - Premodern vs Modern States The terms 'modern state', 'sovereignty' and 'territorial integrity' are too complex and controversial to be discussed here. However, some definitions are necessary in order to examine the evolution of the Chinese state in modern times, so I will just provide a general description of them. 

Shanghai, Nanjing Road (photo by Agnieszka Bojczuk via Wikimedia Commons ) Since its founding in 1921 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has mastered the art of propaganda and recruitment of individuals both inside and outside the country who are willing to cooperate with it and further its interests - a practice known as "united front work". "United front work" refers to the CCP's strategy of cooptation of groups or individuals that are not members of the CCP but are willing to cooperate with it. Cooptation describes the process of bringing outsiders (usually the resource-poorer) inside (usually the resource-richer) ( Saward , 1992). An example of this strategy is the case of former Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. Prior to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to the People's Republic of China (PRC), Tung Chee-hwa had close ties with the government of Taiwan. However, after his shipping company ran into financial trouble and

On March 13 Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou began an official trip to the central American country of Guatemala, one of the few states that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan .  On the website of the Central American Parliament (Parlamento Centroamericano) Ma Ying-jeou is called "President of the Republic of China (Taiwan)". According to Taiwanese reports, other sections of the website called him simply " President of China (Taiwan) ". At a press conference, Ma Ying-jeou clarified which country he represents. "As far as the relations between our two countries are concerned", he said, "China means Republic of China ". Democratic Progressive Party legislator Luo Zhizheng (羅致政) criticised Ma's response, wondering if the Foreign Ministry could accept "Republic of China" as the country's official name. Wang Peiling (王珮玲), spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, reiterated that "Republic of

In the past I have been asked why in some of my posts I write Guomindang while in others I write Kuomintang . Both have the same meaning and pronunciation, but the different spelling is indeed confusing. The same thing can be said for other names, such as Kaohsiung vs Gaoxiong , or Taichung vs Taizhong . I must admit that I have been quite inconsistent. So far I haven't made a clear choice between the Taiwanese and the Chinese way to write these names. But why are there different ways to write Chinese characters using Latin letters? And which one is better? Map of Taiwan. The names are written with the Wade-Giles system Wade-Giles, Pinyin, and the Chinese Civil War When contacts between China and the West intensified in the 19th century, Europeans were confronted with a big issue: how to transliterate Chinese names? For instance, if a Westerner wanted to write a book about China for a Western audience, he had to mention Chinese persons and places. But how could

At around 1 p.m. on December 11 the award-winning Taiwanese baker Wu Pao-ch'un (吳寶春) held a press conference in front of his store in Kao-hsiung, in southern Taiwan. Next to him stood Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), mayor-elect of the city. Surrounded by journalists, the two men explained why Wu's statements about Taiwan being part of China are no big deal. Han Kuo-yu praised "Master Wu", calling him an artist and a " glory of Taiwan ". He then argued that it is wrong to politicize business. "Master Wu is like an artist," Han said. "Because he just bakes bread. He doesn't understand politics ... Simple business people don't deal with politics, they develop their business. I hope that the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait [Taiwan and mainland China] will wish him well. He has faced pressure, but I hope that the Taiwanese people will back him, fully support him. It's not easy to win an international award. Whether he opens a st

On September 26 Taiwanese President Ma Yingjiu was hit by a book hurled at him by Yan Mingwei (顏銘緯), a student activist. Ma Yingjiu  had just attended a gala organised by the International Franchise Association. According to the  Taipei Times , that day an event of the pro-independence Northern Taiwan Society was hosted in the same building. When Ma left the venue, a journalist asked him to comment on Xi Jinping's recent remark that the 'one country, two systems' model is the only way to solve the China-Taiwan issue . The activist then threw the book at the President, hitting his abdomen.  The 18-year-old Yan Mingwei is a student of sociology at Zhongshan University, and a member of Flanc Radical (基進側翼), an anti-Guomindang organisation. The President's spokesperson, Ma Weiguo (馬瑋國) said that the government accepts the people's right to express their opinions rationally, but condemns every form of violence.  At a press conference held by Flanc Radical th

The concept of ' one country, two systems ' is the cornerstone of Beijing's policy towards Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, three areas that remained outside of the control of the People's Republic of China (PRC) after the successful revolution of 1949, but which the Communist state claimed as part of 'China's territory'. In this post, I would like to show how the 'one country, two systems' policy developed, and what contradictions it entailed from the very beginning. We will see how the reaction of the current leadership in Beijing to the ' Occupy Centra l' movement echoes Deng Xiaoping's understanding of 'one country, two systems', and that some of Hong Kong's pan-democrats are wrong when they claim that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is betraying Deng's promise to grant the former British colony a high degree of autonomy. Taiwan and Two Systems in One Country After Deng Xiaoping rose to power in the late

How would you react if you received a visit from the police only because you posted a joke on your blog? I bet you wouldn't be very happy. Most especially if you lived in a country where you might be sentenced to five years in prison.  Well, this is exactly what was going to happen to Wu Hongfei (吴虹飞, pinyin: Wú Hóngfēi), the vocalist and leader of the Chinese rock band Happy Avenue (幸福大街; pinyin: Xìngfú Dàjiē). Last month she was arrested because of a post that appeared on her Sina Weibo micro-blog.  On July 21st, Wu Hongfei threatened to blow some government buildings in Beijing . This threat came only a few hours after a man had detonated a home-made bomb at Beijing International Airport .  Although Wu deleted the post soon afterwards, it had already circulated and it prompted the authorities to arrest her. She didn't imagine that her post would cause her to be detained for a total of eleven days and face criminal charges for "posing a threat to public ord

In 2014 anti-China riots erupted in Vietnam , resulting in over a dozen casualties. Thousands of demonstrators burnt and ransacked factories which they believed to be Chinese property.  The protests were sparked by a diplomatic incident following Beijing 's announcement on May 3 that it was planning to move its first deep-water drilling rig into a location 240 kilometers (150 miles) off Vietnam’s coast, an area which both countries claim as part of their territory. On May 4 a spokesperson for Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry criticized the move, saying that the oil rig was within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. “All activities of foreign countries in Vietnam’s waters without Vietnam’s permission are illegal and worthless," he stated.  Embed from Getty Images Many Vietnamese were furious about what they perceived as Chinese aggression. Both China and Vietnam are Communist dictatorships. However, in the wake of market-oriented reforms nation

Beijing National Stadium (by Peter23 via Wikimedia Commons ) On April 6 the US State Department denied that it was considering a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing  over the Chinese government's human rights abuses, including in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet. "Our position on the 2022 Olympics has not changed. We have not discussed and are not discussing any joint boycott with allies and partners," a senior State Department official wrote in a statement to CNBC. After years of tough anti-Beijing rhetoric from the Trump administration, voices of appeasement are already reemerging. The Financial Times argued that boycotting the Olympics would be ineffectual and would be the wrong solution.  Former Ambassador Christopher Robert Hill stated in a recent interview that the United States needs to be proactive in finding ways to communicate and collaborate more closely with China rather than pursuing a policy of decoupling.  "I do believe that we need to find

The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (via Wikimedia Commons) In an article published on Chinese state-run news outlet People's Daily on June 28, the Liaison Office of Chinese central government in Hong Kong argued that Xi Jinping Thought  must be applied to the former British colony in order to promote nationalism and solve Hong Kong's "long-term problems". The op-ed quotes a speech that Xi Jinping gave during a visit to Hong Kong in the summer of 2017 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the handover. "As a special administrative area under the direct jurisdiction of the Central People's Government, Hong Kong has since the day of the handover once again become part of the nation's system of government," Xi had said.  According to the Liaison Office , Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era is "the most recent outcome of Chi

The Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Guomindang (RCCG; simpl. 中国国民党革命委员会; trad.: 中國國民黨革命委員會 ; pinyin: Zhōngguó Guómíndǎng Gémìngwěiyuánhuì) is one of the eight non-Communist Parties of the People's Republic of China. It was founded in 1947 by a left-wing faction of the Guomindang. It is a member of the United Front under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is committed to the construction of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and to the peaceful reunification of China and Taiwan.  The Origins of the RCCG The Guomindang  was founded in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen , the revolutionary who had advocated the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC) . Sun's aim was to modernise China according to his Three Principles of the People , i.e., Nationalism, Democracy, and Socialism. After the 1911 revolution led by Sun's followers and the proclamation of the Republic of China, the Guomindang became China&