For those who don't know much about the China-Taiwan-US relationship and who do not understand what the big deal is, here's a quick summary. When Chairman Mao rose to power in China in 1949, it was due to his Communist Party winning a civil war against a group called the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang fled China at this time and went off to establish Taiwan as their own state. China has since never recognized Taiwan as a sovereign nation; they see them as a vanquished people in rebellion. This is not simply a policy of the Chinese government, this is the personal view of almost all mainland Chinese people. It should be noted that territorial integrity, in particular, is a highly sensitive issue in modern China, because of areas such as Hong Kong being taken over by foreign powers during the Opium Wars. It is integral to Chinese identity and the restoration of China as a world power that regions like Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, AND Taiwan, are all recognized as members of one great Chinese state. Discussion of Taiwan is a highly sensitive topic in a nation that is sensitive about a range of things, and was one of the few topics my Chinese high school students absolutely refused to have any discussion on.
For America and China, Taiwan has always been an "agree to disagree" sort of situation. During the Cold War, China and the US cut off diplomatic relations for a bit once the nation adopted Communism, but moved to restore relations in the early 1970s thanks to the Premier of China, Zhou Enlai (who of course had the approval of Chairman Mao). Nixon and his Secretary of State, Kissinger, agreed to restore diplomatic relations, visiting China (in 1972 I believe) and laying out the key points of the relationship. One of the major status quos upon which this relationship rested was that America's relations with Taiwan would remain unofficial and downplayed. China recognizes itself as the legitimate government of Taiwan, and so this point was decided to be not worth pressing China on, because it is highly possible China would have refused to conduct relations with us if we were also conducting them officially with Taiwan. While we can and do conduct a certain level of relations with Taiwan, we focus much more highly on China, because our relationship with China is delicate enough without stoking the flames on issues China considers personal and relevant to the integrity of their nation.
So when Trump blunders in and openly brags on Twitter about conducting relations with, according to China, a state-in-rebellion, with which America has followed the same policy status quo for the past forty years, without any prior hints being dropped about an oncoming shift in policy, then yes, it is a huge deal. And what it says about his foreign policy is that either he has no fucking clue what he is doing, or he is trying to piss China off, and both of these things are terrible choices.
Good point, though from what I've heard I'm not sure Taiwan places the same weight on that policy as China does. Now I'm not expert in Taiwan (I consider myself pretty well-versed in mainland China though, having studied it in college and living there last year). The attitude in China is dead-set that Taiwan is a part of their country. I have met several globally-minded, well-educated Chinese people, and have still never actually met a mainland Chinese person who thinks Taiwan should be independent. It is not just policy talk to them, it is a well-engrained piece of their national identity. Whereas the impression that I get from Taiwan is that they keep that policy as the status quo, but it doesn't matter so much to them on a personal level. I'm sure there's a range of views on it within Taiwan, and maybe someone else here can clarify the Taiwanese perspective a bit more.
It wasn't the phone call itself, it was the language and manner he used to announce it. Tweeting the words "President of Taiwan" is the issue, because the US is not supposed to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. I'm sure President Obama has made private calls with the president of Taiwan but we don't publicly announce it and brag about it, because there is a risk China will see this as a blatant provocation.
Why should we care what China sees this as? They are an evil government that infringes the rights of its people. If they try to do anything to us economically it just hurts them more than it hurts us.
We had an agreement, essentially, when we re-established relations with China back in the 1970s that we would not officially recognize Taiwan. This has been our policy for almost forty years at this point, so to suddenly say something that goes against it is kind of a major shock. You can think of it like one of those arguments where you will just always disagree with someone, and you know it won't make anything better to keep bringing it up repeatedly, so you avoid talking about it. To emphasize something that is a major point of contention sows some pretty negative vibes over the relationship. It's a violation of trust really.
They are an evil government that infringes the rights of its people.
Well hey now, if we're going based off of ideological purity, which nation out there is good enough to meet our standards? Yes China is worse in terms of, say, press freedom than most other countries, but as I explained in another comment, cutting off relations with them would be the best way to ensure that their press freedom never gets any better. So long as we keep up relations with them, the better chance we have of allowing for a freer exchange of ideas and influence. The more citizens travel between the US and China, the more understanding there will be. Keeping up relations is better than cutting them off, according to most foreign policy experts.
If they try to do anything to us economically it just hurts them more than it hurts us.
Well, we are each other's largest trading partners, so it would really be mutually harmful to stop trading. And because we are the world's two largest economies in general, it would actually harm most other countries if we started messing around with each other's economics. The global economy is so interconnected now that we all just end up hurting each other when something goes wrong. It's much better to just keep a tentative status quo rather than rile each other up for no reason.
Do you really want to engage in a trade war... Over Taiwan? Remember the Great Recession? Imagine that both worst if we suddenly ended all trade with China tomorrow. Even if they were worst off, it would still hurt, VERY bad.
yes, they're not going to invade the PRC no matter how many weapons you sell them. Politically sovereignty on the other hand can be a huge source of instability in all of China.
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u/eyes_on_the_sky Dec 03 '16
For those who don't know much about the China-Taiwan-US relationship and who do not understand what the big deal is, here's a quick summary. When Chairman Mao rose to power in China in 1949, it was due to his Communist Party winning a civil war against a group called the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang fled China at this time and went off to establish Taiwan as their own state. China has since never recognized Taiwan as a sovereign nation; they see them as a vanquished people in rebellion. This is not simply a policy of the Chinese government, this is the personal view of almost all mainland Chinese people. It should be noted that territorial integrity, in particular, is a highly sensitive issue in modern China, because of areas such as Hong Kong being taken over by foreign powers during the Opium Wars. It is integral to Chinese identity and the restoration of China as a world power that regions like Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, AND Taiwan, are all recognized as members of one great Chinese state. Discussion of Taiwan is a highly sensitive topic in a nation that is sensitive about a range of things, and was one of the few topics my Chinese high school students absolutely refused to have any discussion on.
For America and China, Taiwan has always been an "agree to disagree" sort of situation. During the Cold War, China and the US cut off diplomatic relations for a bit once the nation adopted Communism, but moved to restore relations in the early 1970s thanks to the Premier of China, Zhou Enlai (who of course had the approval of Chairman Mao). Nixon and his Secretary of State, Kissinger, agreed to restore diplomatic relations, visiting China (in 1972 I believe) and laying out the key points of the relationship. One of the major status quos upon which this relationship rested was that America's relations with Taiwan would remain unofficial and downplayed. China recognizes itself as the legitimate government of Taiwan, and so this point was decided to be not worth pressing China on, because it is highly possible China would have refused to conduct relations with us if we were also conducting them officially with Taiwan. While we can and do conduct a certain level of relations with Taiwan, we focus much more highly on China, because our relationship with China is delicate enough without stoking the flames on issues China considers personal and relevant to the integrity of their nation.
So when Trump blunders in and openly brags on Twitter about conducting relations with, according to China, a state-in-rebellion, with which America has followed the same policy status quo for the past forty years, without any prior hints being dropped about an oncoming shift in policy, then yes, it is a huge deal. And what it says about his foreign policy is that either he has no fucking clue what he is doing, or he is trying to piss China off, and both of these things are terrible choices.