China warns US to be ready for head-on collision over 'salami slicing tactics' in Taiwan

On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's foreign minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with each other. This phone conversation comes at a time when there are reports that suggest Blinken is going to visit China during the beginning of next year. Despite the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia, the tensions between the two nations remain high. 

China has sanctioned Miles Maochun Yu, who served as principal China policy advisor to ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Deputy staff director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Todd Stein has been sanctioned as well, according to a report from South China Morning Post. These sanctions were reportedly imposed in response to US sanctions over human rights violations in Tibet. In their phone conversation, Wang Yi apparently warned the US against continuing with its "salami slicing tactics" in Taiwan. He said that Washington's tactics will lead to a "head-on collision" between the US and China. 

Examining Beijing's claim over Taiwan

Beijing claims Taiwan as a part of China, however, it is important to examine this claim and not take it at face value. The Chinese Communist Party has never governed Taiwan. When the Chinese civil war ended with the victory of communists, the nationalists, led by Chiang Kai Shek, fled to Taiwan and started governing the island, which was formerly known as Formosa. The first myth is that Taiwanese are Han Chinese and therefore they are no different from the people in mainland China. This is wrong. Long before the Han Chinese started migrating to Taiwan, Taiwan was the home of indigenous Taiwanese people. 

Qing occupation and Han migration

The first recorded instance of Chinese occupation of Taiwan occurred in the late 13th century, when the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) established a military presence on the island. However, this occupation was short-lived. It is only in the 17th Century, that the Qing dynasty established a sizable presence on the island, after defeating the Dutch, who had established a presence in the island back in the 16th century. The Qing dynasty established a system of governance on the island and began to encourage Han Chinese migration to Taiwan as a way to strengthen its control over the island. 

It may be argued that the indigenous people of Taiwan did not have any identity of their own and they were "saved" by China, from the "barbarian" Europeans. This discourse is quite common in mainland China, along with the underlying assumption that it was the Han Chinese who "civilised" indigenous people of Taiwan. Facts from the time period shine forth a light on these claims and prove how they rest on shaky legs. The fact that the island's indigenous population resisted Qing rule highlights that they had their own separate identity and viewed Qing rule as occupation. 

Uprisings during Qing occupation & transfer to Japan

The Qing dynasty faced several major uprisings, including the 1652-1661 Revolt of the Three Feudatories and the 1661-1683 Taiwan Great Upper Realm Rebellion. In 1895, following the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing dynasty ceded Formosa to Japan as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Japan invested heavily in Taiwan's infrastructure and economy, building roads, ports, and other facilities and establishing Taiwan as a key center of trade and commerce in the region. This helped to spur economic development on the island and improve the standard of living for many Taiwanese. Japan also invested in Taiwan's education system, establishing a number of schools and universities on the island and promoting the study of science and technology. This helped to create a more educated and skilled workforce in Taiwan and laid the foundation for Taiwan's later economic development. 

Taiwan's path to democracy & contrast with China

Japan ruled the island until the end of World War II, when it was returned to Chinese sovereignty and placed under the control of the Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-shek. The Nationalist government was soon challenged by the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. In 1949, after the Chinese civil war, when the Communist Party emerged victorious and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland, the Kuomintang (the nationalists) retreated to Taiwan and established a government there. For the first few decades, Taiwan was governed by an authoritarian system, just like the mainland.

However, unlike the mainland, Taiwan went through a process of political liberalisation in the 1980s and the first multi-party election was held in 1991. Since that time, Taiwan has been a democratic society, not that different from other democracies like India, UK or US. China claims that the US suplying weapons to Taiwan, which will make it harder for Beijing to cross the strait and occupy the island, is "salami slicing".