Welcome to Taiwan

Taiwan Photo Gallery

Today was my “touristy” day. I set off for Asia’s finest museum, the Taiwan History Museum. When the Kuomintang (KMT) fled Mao’s communists in 1949, they took with them the national treasures from several millenia. Impeccably preserved, I spent four hours browsing the exhibits. I am not the biggest fan of museums as I believe they yield rapidly diminishing returns after one hour, but the scale and precision of the works proved my theory wrong. The Chinese are experts with jade, ivory, calligraphy, painting, wood carvings, bronze-work, and other various knickknacks. Even a novice like myself could not help appreciating the wonder of their achievements.

After the museum, I rode the metro to another part of the city to see the famous memorial to Chiang Kai Shek. As the celebrated general who brought the KMT to Taiwan, the grand scale of his memorial indicates the dictatorial way in which he ruled Taiwan for several decades. Depending on whether or not they supported the reforms of the KMT (many of which turned Taiwan into an economic novelty), Taiwanese views of CKS are sharply divided.

While wandering the large square the memorial looks out on, I observed a massive procession performed by the Taiwan military. Well orchestrated with gun swinging, bombarding drums, and an excited crowd of onlookers, I felt a twinge of the hope Taiwan must feel in protecting themselves from mainland aggression. I will talk more about Taiwan’s political affairs at the end of this post.

For dinner I made my way to the food court of the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101. It may sound silly, but the food rivals anything else that can be found in the city because of the variety of cuisines offered. As for climbing to the top of the 101-storied bamboo looking building, I decided to take a rain check.

Before heading back to my hotel for the evening, I stopped at the headquarters of the protest movement. Conveniently located directly across the street from my building (I included a photo taken from my window), the protest goes on day and night; I wake up to the speeches and sleep to the chanting. Donning my red polo, I mingled with the sea of red supporters calling for President Chen’s resignation. Given that I was the only westerner taking part in the event, I was able to hold long conversations with a variety of people. Fortunately, those who can speak English are well-educated, and those who are well-educated are better able to hold in-depth conversations!

I suppose now is a good time to share what I have learned about Taiwan. I hope that you do not pass up on the reading, even if it does seem too much like a history lesson about a place you may care little about. If nothing else, perhaps it will remind you of the discussions you had with your high school political science teacher (eons ago, in my mother’s case). More directly, Taiwan arguably remains the most likely cause of the feared hostility between China and the United States.

I came to Taiwan because it is the most exciting place in Asia, right now. This is saying a lot considering Thailand’s recent coup, Japan’s new war-hawk president, South Korea’s fears of a nuclear test in the north, and China’s arresting of top Shanghai officials. Why should anyone care what is happening with protests in Taiwan, especially considering protests and political corruption are common the world over?

The answer is simple: Taiwan is a newly formed democracy still in its teething stage, and there is no one to calm its nerves. With the economy suffering a long-term slowdown, continuing fears of Chinese aggression, news of rampant corruption from the presidential family, and the approaching celebrations of independence from communist aggression, I can think of no circumstances more inviting of change.

Let me begin by clarifying that the two month protests have been fairly safe, thus far. Other than minor incidents of aggression in the south, the Taiwanese are taking to the streets advocating reform without endangering national stability. This is important, and was a pre-condition for my coming. Fighting among the people will solve nothing, and I am impressed that the population recognizes this without “forcing the issue”.

Now, to shed some light on what exactly is going on… The president of the DPP party, Chen Shuibian, and numerous members of his family are widely suspected of stealing millions of dollars. Since there is no mechanism for presidential impeachment, there is widespread frustration over the lack of justice.

Adding fuel to the fire, problems with Chen go back to his election in 2000. The KMT were widely expected to win the 2000 election, but Chen (DPP candidate) was shot in the stomach just before the voting. While official reports claim a recently dead KMT supporter was responsible for the shooting, many Taiwanese believe Chen was in on the assassination attempt. The reasons for a conspiracy are as follows: there was no way to question the dead man (JFK, anyone), the KMT were expected to easily win the election, Chen quickly recovered from the non-lethal bullet, and the investigation ended immediately after the shooting. Although protesting took place over allegations of a cover-up, there was little that could be done to investigate the conspiracy theory. The widespread stealing of public funds represents a drastically different scenario as it transcends party lines. Indeed, the leader of the protests is the founder of the DPP party.

All in all, protestors are composed of both political parties and are fighting for Chen’s immediate resignation (his term is set to end in 2008). He has so far refused to do so, resulting in a significant stand-off that will hopefully resolve itself (peacefully) on national day.

Some of my thoughts on Taiwan, with some assistive history…
Beginning in 1949 when Chiang Kai Shek (CKS) took refuge in Taiwan, the “country” was ruled by the KMT in a dictatorial fashion. Power was passed to CKS’ son upon his death, and during the late 1980s several important changes occurred: martial law ended, the second political party (DPP) was formed, and the first Taiwanese born politician assumed power. This is important because it signifies the change in approach of the KMT – originally, Taiwan was a place to gather strength before re-taking the mainland. As time passed, economic reform took place, and the KMT settled in for the long-haul.

Relations with mainland China have been heated for a long time, as the mainland feels that Taiwan is rightfully theirs. Historically, they are correct considering General CKS took Taiwan by force. However, enough time has passed to make this argument useless in the eyes of many Taiwanese. Further, the younger generations of Taiwan have grown up believing they are strictly Taiwanese, and are resentful of the mainland’s insistence that they are of mainland Chinese descent. Conversely, mainlander’s are resentful that the Taiwanese dare neglect their heritage. Presently, if Taiwan declares independence, China will not hesitate to use force.

I find this all interesting in a compare and contrast fashion between Hong Kong and Taiwan. Firstly, whereas Hong Kong has little problem being ruled by the mainland, the Taiwanese are quickly driven to anger at such an idea. Secondly, the culture of Taiwan is more closely aligned to that of the mainland than is Hong Kong’s culture. Despite this, the people of Hong Kong still identify with a stronger mainland heritage. Lastly, both Taiwan and Hong Kong were ruled by foreign powers for extended periods in the 20th century (Japan, and Great Britain, respectively). Whereas Great Britain did positive things for Hong Kong, Japan sucked Taiwan dry for many years. It would seem Taiwan would be grateful for Chinese liberation while Hong Kong would resent being forced to wear the leash of communism.

Alas, it all comes down to politically-inspired indoctrination. The Taiwanese have been raised to believe that mainland aggression threatens their freedom, while Hong Kong has been assured little will change under the 50 Years Policy. This is important because Taiwanese teachings have superseded the long-established Chinese tradition of being ruled for millennia – from emperors to warlords.

Another interesting comparison is between South Korea and Taiwan. Both are former Asian Tigers who surprised the world with their explosive economic growth. Both are threatened by a hostile communist neighbor (N. Korea and China, respectively). Both have experienced slowing economies because of Japan’s high-tech dominance and China’s cheap production. Finally, both are democracies struggling to develop more stable political systems. South Korea had protests not too long ago over presidential corruption, and things have since been ironed out. I hope the same will happen with Taiwan.

With politics out of the way, both Taiwan and South Korea have similar economic problems to deal with. Their manufactured goods are no longer the cheapest, and their knowledge base no longer dominates the markets (think: China and India). I am interested to see how the governments cope, hopefully by offering better incentives for investing in growing markets. This is obviously a big difficulty for Taiwan given the open hostility with the Chinese government – to this day, there are no direct flights between the two countries.

All of these topics must factor into the strategic plans of the White House. Looking at a map, it is not hard to see battle lines being drawn: China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea on one side, with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and India on another side. Referring back to the map, perhaps the U.S. is achieving its goal of keeping China bottled up on all sides with the aforementioned nations. While I believe such a dangerous state of affairs is a long way off (and will hopefully never matriculate), tensions exist among all the countries I mentioned. Additionally, the recent trend for wars between states with different governmental structures could make matters worse. Wars have been started for far less innocuous reasons than (1) visiting war memorials (Japan/China), (2) a nuclear missile test (N.Korea/Japan/US), (3) threat of invasion in a politically unstable time (Taiwan/China), (4) nuclear threat mixed with oil reliance (Iran/US/China), and so on…

I hope to reiterate that all of these topics are purely speculative possibilities, and I think calmer heads will prevail. My fear is that calm heads usually do not make headlines or gain followers when the future is uncertain.