DLC Blog

The Taiwan Question

Whether or not Taiwan is or should be a part of China is a long-standing source of intense debate in east Asia. It currently rules itself as one of the only functioning democracies in the area, with its own government independent of mainland China. However, Chinese politicians still maintain that Taiwan is a province of China and should thus fall under Chinese authority.

This debate has become more heated in recent years as China’s economy starts on an upward soar. As China becomes more important in the economic world, the politics of how to deal with “the Taiwan question” turns into a rather delicate issue for countries establishing business relations with the mainland.

Recently, Taiwan has begun protests against the website Google for portraying Taiwan as a province of China on its map. Google has recently been trying to oust Baidu, a local Chinese search engine, as the primary online searching tool in mainland China. The company had probably changed the map in order to better relations with Chinese politicians and thus ease their entry into the Chinese cybermarket. The Taiwanese Solidarity Movement is urging the public to email the company in protest.

In a similar incident, Yahoo! was recently accused of selling information to the Chinese government by Reporters Without Borders, the international media watchdog. This alleged information helped jail a Chinese journalist for “selling state secrets.”

The United States has always supported an independent Taiwan, and has backed this support with security assurances. This could put the United States in a very difficult position as it tries to strengthen economic ties with China, especially should the debate become an open conflict.

For now, some hope that continued economic ties between Taiwan and the mainland will make military disputes less likely.

To learn more, see the sites below:

Taiwan protests over Google map (BBC)
Care Taiwan Association: History of Taiwan (netTrekker - login required)

Lindsey Aakre
Student Mentor - French

Posted by Lindsey at October 4, 2005 04:59 PM in Social Studies.