Passport to Taiwan

byjetrbby80316

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Updated 5 years ago

There are literally hundreds of street fairs in New York City. But of them all, only one stands out for me.

Every third Sunday of May for over a decade held in Union Square, there is a great event whose goal is to create exposure and to increase mainstream awareness for a territory in Asia that has long been maligned with confusion and suppressed of its independence for many decades by the People’s Republic of China.

This event is called Passport to Taiwan, and it is a joyous outdoor festival replete with the brightest bands and entertainers from Taiwan performing onstage, with long lines of hungry pedestrians anxiously waiting on busy stalls of culinary chefs cooking the most delicious street food indigenous to the various regions of the country.

The olfactory smells and native sounds in the background truly amalgamate into a euphonious concoction of the senses. While the temperate late May breeze feels refreshing on the skin, and provides a cooling respite to the midday sun.

On a more sobering note, this annual celebrated occasion serves as a reminder to us all of the sad plight of Taiwan throughout its convoluted political history throughout the 20th Century to the present.

However for most New Yorkers like me, this festival represents the tremendous resilience of its people, and an unwavering and incessant demonstrative pride that Taiwanese Americans continue to harbor for their motherland which are manifest through an ongoing proactive fight and continuous strides toward recognition of independence.

Recent News in Taiwan

There has been jubilant news in Taiwan recently, as on May 24 the High Court has struck down the rule that marriage be strictly defined only between men and women. Hence, the LBGTQ community have won an inspiring victory, as Taiwan has become the first nation in Asia to legalize gay marriage.

This should come as no surprise, as Taiwan has been the forerunner in Asia for the past 20+ years on a number of progressive fronts. The following is only to name a few.

Taiwan holds a progressive political agenda and is a small nation with a BIG impact on the world:

1) Taiwan is the 10th largest trading partner of the United States

2) Taiwan became the first nation in Asia to legalize gay marriage in 2017.

3) Currently 38% of Taiwan’s legislators are women

4) Taiwan has among the best National Healthcare systems in the world for providing access since 1995

5) Taiwan has one of the highest recycling rates in the world with 55% (United States is 35%)

6) Taiwan’s First direct presidential election was held in 1996

7) Taiwan’s first woman president Tsai Ing-Wen was elected in 2016

8) Taiwan boasts the largest LGBT Parade in Asia

Yet for all of Taiwan’s enormous contributions to the world and the great pride of their people, their insensible relegation by the People’s Republic of China since the end of World War II and the lack of recognition of their independent sovereignty from China and from most of the rest of the world has caused a tremendous indignity to their people.

According to Wikipedia, 22 countries or entities currently have full diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Today, Taiwan is still not recognized by the United Nations Council as an independent sovereignty and its membership to the U.N. continues to be blocked by the People's Republic of China, although Taiwan has had its own independent government, their own currency, their own military, and has had direct presidential elections since 1996.

A Brief History of Taiwan since the Late 19th Century

Since the end of the 19th century, the history of Taiwan has been a convoluted one mired in political controversy.

The Japanese governed Taiwan from 1895-1945 when Taiwan was ceded to Japan from China in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This treaty was the end result of China being defeated by Japan during the First Sino-Japanese War from 1894-1895.

Taiwan would remain a colony of Japan until 1945. As a result, most of the older generation native Taiwanese who were born during this period continue to speak Japanese in their households as a first language.

Here is a Brief History of Taiwan from 1945 to 1987:

The Kuomintang (KMT), the Nationalist Chinese Party led by Chiang Kai-Shek, was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in an internal powerful struggle within China called the Chinese Civil War, and subsequently were forced to leave China.

This allowed the Communist Party of China to declare the establishment of a new Chinese state: the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Republic of China (ROC) which is the governing structure created by the KMT remained.

While the civil war was going on in China, the Allied forces led by the United States, defeated the Japanese in World War II, who subsequently upon surrender had to give up their claim of Taiwan to the Allied Forces.

As a result of these concomitant historical events, the Allied forces who supported Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalist Chinese Party or “Free China” gave permission for the KMT to temporarily occupy Taiwan.

Immediately upon the Japanese surrender of Taiwan in 1945, the KMT began its occupation of Taiwan. Between the Japanese surrender of Taiwan in 1945 and April 1946, the Republic of China military forces repatriated 90% of the Japanese living in Taiwan to Japan.

By the end of 1949 when Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had defeated the KMT, Chiang Kai-Shek and the remainder of the KMT fled to the island of Taiwan.

Thus the CCP became the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and ruler Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Chinese Party now transplanted to Taiwan (and retaining its ROC governing structure) both co-existed as two independent governing autocracies.

Although sanctioned by the Allied Forces after World War II as a “temporary retreat”, Taiwan eventually became the permanent home of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Chinese Party (KMT) as a result of his autocratic rule.

Shortly after transplanting his Nationalist Chinese Party and its governing structure the ROC to Taiwan in 1949, ruler Chiang Kai-Shek would impose a strict Martial Law that would last until 1987.

Under martial law the KMT ruled Taiwan with the stated goal of being vigilant against Communist infiltration and preparing to retake mainland China. Therefore, any political dissent was not tolerated.

After the Martial Law was placed into effect, many Taiwanese became victims of the political repression known as the White Terror. From 1947 to 1987, tens of thousands of Taiwanese were imprisoned and at least 1,000 were executed, most in the early 1950s, after being accused of spying for Communist China.

During the period from the 1960’s through the late 1980’s, Taiwan families often were splintered from other family members. Usually the men would be granted special visas and used them to flee abroad to America to seek a better life away from the KMT. Meanwhile, the wife and the children often were forced to remain in Taiwan. Sadly, far too many times these families were never able to reunite.

Taiwan: The Turbulent Period from 1970’s through the late 1980’s

Until the early 1970s, the Republic of China (ROC) was recognized as the sole legitimate government of China by the United Nations and most Western nations, refusing to recognize the People's Republic of China (PRC) on account of the Cold War.

However by the early 1970’s, Taiwan faced setbacks in the international sphere. In 1971, the ROC government walked out of the United Nations shortly before it recognized the PRC government in Beijing as the legitimate holder of China's seat in the United Nations.

The ROC had been offered dual representation, but Chiang Kai-shek demanded to retain a seat on the UN Security Council, which was not acceptable to the PRC. Chiang expressed his decision in his famous "the sky is not big enough for two suns" speech.

In October 1971, Resolution 2758 was passed by the UN General Assembly and "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" (and thus the ROC) were expelled from the UN and replaced as "China" by the PRC. In 1979, the United States switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

It was the late 1970s and early 1980s that represented a very turbulent time for the Taiwan-born as many of the people who had originally been oppressed and left behind by economic changes became members of Taiwan's new middle class.

Taiwan’s Move toward Democracy

With the death of Chiang Kai-shek in April 1975 at the age of 87, the new leadership of Taiwan succeeded the presidency to Yen Chia-Kan, who elected his son Chiang Ching-Kuo as the successor to the leadership of the KMT.

Formerly the head of the feared secret police, Chiang Ching-Kuo recognized gaining foreign support to securing the ROC's future security required reform. His administration saw a gradual loosening of political controls, and a transition towards democracy. As a result, opponents of the Nationalists were no longer forbidden to hold meetings or publish papers.

However, with the demise of the KMT single-party system and the democratization movement during the 1980s, the martial law was eventually lifted in 1987 and provisions were eventually rescinded in 1991.

A constitutional democracy was eventually restored in the ROC after 1987. Free enterprise has since allowed native Taiwanese to gain a powerful bargaining chip in their demands for respect for their basic human rights.

Looking to Taiwan’s Future

What I have discoursed here is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Hopefully one can now understand how Taiwan’s convoluted political history has affected both native Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans, causing so many to experience such deep feelings of indignity and isolation from the world, and a continued feeling of marginalization from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

To this day, both the native Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans although saddened by the past, have become emboldened through successive generations and have developed a feeling of great empowerment and sustainability for their cause.

The Sunflower Student Movement of April 2014 in the Legislative Yuan in Taipei is a testament to their fight for the cause. Much progress has since been made toward the recognition of Taiwan as an independent sovereignty and the fight continues.

Passport to Taiwan in New York City’s Union Square salutes the Taiwanese American community’s inner strength and intestinal fortitude to these continual challenges. It provides us all a reminder of the strength of the human spirit.

Thank you for reading, and any of your comments regarding this article would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Kaju