China-Taiwan Conflict, Where does the world stand?

 

China has conducted its largest-ever display of military power in the skies and seas surrounding Taiwan, including the launch of ballistic missiles. The military drills followed a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
Taiwan is viewed by China as a renegade province that will inevitably return to Beijing's rule. The self-governing island, on the other hand, perceives itself as different from the mainland, with its own constitution and democratically chosen government.

History of China and Taiwan

Austronesian tribal people, who are assumed to have originated in modern-day southern China, were the earliest known settlers in Taiwan.
Beijing utilizes this historical fact to support its claim to the island, which first appears in Chinese annals in AD 239 when an emperor dispatched an expeditionary army to investigate the region.
Taiwan was governed by China's Qing dynasty from 1683 to 1895 after a relatively brief period (1624–1661) as a Dutch possession.
From the 17th Century, significant numbers of migrants started arriving from China, often fleeing turmoil or hardship. Most were Hoklo Chinese from Fujian (Fukien) province or Hakka Chinese, largely from Guangdong. Their descendants are now by far the largest demographic groups on the island.
Taiwan had to be given up by the Qing government to Japan after Japan's victory in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. Following World War Two, Japan gave up the possession of the land it had seized from China. With the support of its allies, the US and UK, the Republic of China (ROC), one of the war's winners, took over as the island nation's ruler.
However, a civil war followed out in China in the following few years, and Mao Zedong's Communist army overcame the forces of the country's then-leader Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1949, Chiang, the surviving members of his Kuomintang (KMT) cabinet, and their supporters—roughly 1.5 million people fled to Taiwan.
Even though they only make up 14% of the population, this minority, known as the Mainland Chinese, long controlled Taiwan's politics. In exile in Taiwan, Chiang built a government that he oversaw for the following 25 years.
After assuming control, Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang, permitted further liberalization. Locals who disliked authoritarian rule opposed him, and a burgeoning democratic movement put pressure on him.
Taiwan's ‘father of democracy,’ President Lee Teng-hui, oversaw constitutional amendments that finally allowed Chen Shui-bian to become the island's first non-KMT leader in 2000.

Why does China want Taiwan?

Despite the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has never administered Taiwan, Beijing regards it as an indivisible part of its territory.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to seek peaceful ‘reunification’ with Taiwan.
In a speech in 2021, Xi stated that the main impediment to China's reunification was the ‘Taiwan independence’ movement.
‘Those who forget their ancestry, betray their nation, and strive to divide the country will fail,’ Xi warned.
He stated his desire for peaceful reunification under a “one nation, two systems” principle similar to that of Hong Kong. Taiwan, on the other hand, is largely opposed to the government system.

Legal Status of Taiwan

There is debate and misunderstanding regarding what Taiwan is. Its armed forces have roughly 300,000 active members and are governed by democratically elected officials.
At initially, Chiang's ROC government-in-exile asserted that it spoke for all of China, which it wanted to retake. It was acknowledged by many Western countries as the only Chinese government and held China's seat on the UN Security Council.
However, by the 1970s, several nations were making the case that the Taipei government was no longer a true representation of the hundreds of millions of people who lived on the Chinese mainland.

After that, Beijing received diplomatic recognition from the UN in 1971, which led to the overthrow of the ROC government. China likewise started liberalizing its economy in 1978. In 1979, the US formally established diplomatic connections with Beijing after seeing the potential for commerce and the necessity of fostering relations.
Since that time, only roughly 14 nations have maintained diplomatic recognition of the ROC government. They are: Paraguay, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Holy See(Vatican City),  Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Swaziland and Tuvalu.
Currently, Taiwan's legal status is uncertain despite the fact that it possesses all the traits of an independent state and a political structure that is different from China.

Relations between Taiwan and China

As Taiwan loosened restrictions on travel and investment in China, relations began to improve in the 1980s. It declared the conflict with the People's Republic of China to be concluded in 1991.
The so-called “one nation, two systems” option was put out by China, who claimed that it, would grant Taiwan considerable autonomy in exchange for its consent to come under Beijing's rule. This system served as the foundation for Hong Kong's handover to China in 1997 and the way it was administered up until recently, when Beijing moved to exert more authority over the territory.
Unofficial delegates from China and Taiwan continued to hold brief discussions despite Taiwan rejecting the offer and Beijing's insistence that Taiwan's ROC government is not genuine.
Then, much to Beijing's concern, Taiwan chose Chen Shui-bian as its president in 2000. Mr. Chen and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) he leads have publicly supported ‘independence’. China issued a so-called anti-secession law in 2005, a year after Mr. Chen was re-elected, which stated China's right to employ ‘non-peaceful methods’ against Taiwan if it attempted to ‘secede’ from China.
Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT succeeded Mr. Chen in 2008 and attempted to improve ties through commercial deals. Tsai Ing-wen, the DPP's current leader and the president of Taiwan today, was chosen eight years later, in 2016.
The tone became even more abrasive in 2018 as Beijing increased its pressure on foreign businesses, threatening to prevent them from conducting business in China if they failed to declare Taiwan as a part of China on their websites.
With a record-breaking 8.2 million votes in 2020, Ms. Tsai gained a second term in what was generally perceived as a rebuke to Beijing. Many people in Taiwan were keeping a close eye on the upheaval that had been raging in Hong Kong for months due to large-scale protests against the rising influence of the mainland.
A national security law that China adopted in Hong Kong later that year is thought to be another indication of Beijing's assertiveness.

How important is independence in Taiwan? 

While political progress has been gradual, ties between Beijing and Taipei have increased, as have the two economies. Taiwanese investment in China reached $193.5 billion (£157.9 billion) between 1991 and the end of May 2021, according to Taiwanese official estimates.
Some Taiwanese are concerned that their country's economy has become overly reliant on China. Others argue that tighter commercial links reduce the likelihood of Chinese military intervention due to the expense to China's economy.
In 2014, a contentious trade deal spurred the ‘Sunflower Movement,’ in which students and activist’s invaded Taiwan's parliament to protest what they saw as China's rising control over Taiwan.
Officially, Taiwan's legal independence is still supported by the ruling DPP, but eventual unification with China is supported by the KMT.
However, the majority of Taiwanese individuals appear to fall somewhere in the middle. According to a June 2022 poll, just 5.2% of Taiwanese wanted independence as soon as feasible, while 1.3% wanted union with mainland China as soon as possible.
The remainder backed some sort of retaining the status quo, with the majority wishing to keep it forever with no movement toward independence or unity.

US role in defending Taiwan

Washington's long-standing position has been one of ‘strategic ambiguity,’ to the point of military intervention if China invaded Taiwan.
It adheres to the “One-China” policy, which acknowledges only one Chinese government - in Beijing - and maintains diplomatic links with Beijing rather than Taipei.
However, it has vowed to provide Taiwan with defensive armaments and has stated that any invasion by China would raise ‘grave worry’.
When asked if the US will protect Taiwan militarily in May 2022, President Joe Biden said yes. The White House promptly underlined that the US position on Taiwan had not changed and reaffirmed its support to the “One-China” policy. It has also contradicted Mr. Biden's earlier views on military backing for Taiwan.
Taiwan has also strained relations between the United States and China. Since Mr Biden's victory, Beijing has blasted any perceived support from Washington for Taipei, and has responded by increasing incursions of military planes into Taiwan's air defense zone.

Taiwan’s Defense Situation

China might try to achieve ‘reunification’ through non-military ways such as developing economic connections. However, in any military conflict, China's armed forces would overwhelm Taiwan's.
Except for the United States, China spends the most on defense and has access to a vast array of weapons, ranging from naval power to missile technology, aircraft, and cyber strikes. Much of China's military force is concentrated abroad, but there is a significant imbalance between the two sides in terms of active duty soldiers, for example.
Some Western analysts believe that in an open confrontation, Taiwan might at most strive to halt a Chinese onslaught, block a beach landing by Chinese amphibious forces, and launch guerilla operations while waiting for foreign assistance. This assistance might come from the United States, which sells armaments to Taiwan.
Until, Washington's doctrine of ‘strategic ambiguity’ meant that the US was purposefully ambiguous about whether or not it would protect Taiwan if attacked.
Diplomatically, the United States presently adheres to the “One-China” policy, which recognizes only one Chinese government - that of Beijing - and maintains official connections with China rather than Taiwan.
However, US President Joe Biden seemed to stiffen Washington's stance in May. When asked if the US would protect Taiwan militarily, Mr Biden said, ‘Yes’. The White House emphasized that Washington's attitude had not altered.

Who Does Bangladesh Support?

Bangladesh has reaffirmed its unwavering allegiance to the "One China" concept and urged all parties to settle their issues through negotiation and in line with the UN Charter.
According to a foreign ministry statement, Bangladesh has encouraged all parties involved to exercise extreme caution and refrain from any actions connected to the Taiwan issue that may aggravate tensions and undermine peace and stability in the region and beyond.
A day after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which heightened tensions between China and the US, Bangladesh said it was closely monitoring events in the Taiwan Strait. 
China has strongly denounced the visit, the first by a prominent US politician in 25 years, which it views as having symbolic value and being comparable to recognizing Taiwan.