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Backgrounder: China-Taiwan Relations

Council on Foreign Relations

Authors: Esther Pan, Youkyung Lee

January 11, 2008

Introduction

China and Taiwan, while in practice maintaining a fragile “status quo” relationship, periodically grow impatient with the diplomatic patchwork that has kept the island separate from the Communist mainland since 1949. After losing the civil war to Communist Chinese and fleeing to Taiwan in 1949, the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) leaders of the Republic of China regarded the Communist Chinese government as illegitimate, claiming the mainland as rightfully their own. KMT held power until the election of President Chen Shui-bian and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2000. The DPP has engaged in policy that widely departs from the KMT. Since becoming the first non-KMT leader of the Republic of China in Taiwan, President Chen has invigorated efforts to seek Taiwan’s sovereignty. Beijing, in turn, regards Taiwan as a renegade province, and has tried repeatedly to persuade the island to negotiate a return to the fold under terms similar to those governing the former British colony in Hong Kong. While the threat of hot war appears low, and economic ties have grown steadily since the two began serious bilateral exchanges in the 1980s, periodic spasms of anti-Taiwan feeling in Beijing, and of pro-independence sentiment on the island, severely test the peace that has reigned in recent years across the Taiwan Strait.

“One China” Principle

The two sides sharply disagree on Taiwan’s de jure political status, and have differing interpretations of the “One China” principle that theoretically governs their relationship. The principle states that “China” includes the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Diplomatically, Taiwan, the United States, and most of the world’s other nations abide by the One China principle, though Taiwan has used foreign aid to convince some small developing countries to recognize its as a separate country.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.