A Taiwanese identity emerges

A strong sense of Taiwanese identity has come hand in hand with the flourishing of democracy. The crux of this evolution: Taiwan emphatically prefers peace. 

|
Ann Wang/Reuters
People watch as soldiers practice laying mines and nets to stymie the landing of enemy forces in Taipei, Taiwan, July 22, 2024.

In this week’s cover story, our Beijing Bureau Chief Ann Scott Tyson files a dispatch from Taiwan, where she explores how residents are coming to understand themselves as, specifically, a Taiwanese people.

They emphatically prefer peace, Ann tells us. The strong sense of a Taiwanese identity has come hand in hand with the flourishing of democracy, she says.

The feeling has only grown as China continues to pressure Taiwan with frequent shows of its military and economic might.

It hasn’t always been this way. Taiwan still officially calls itself the Republic of China. The vast majority of its residents are ethnically Han Chinese. And until the late 1980s, the government was a repressive dictatorship, insisting it was the sole legitimate ruler of all of China.

Today, Taiwan remains in a kind of diplomatic limbo. Since the 1970s, the United Nations, the United States, and many other countries have switched their diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China. The U.S. acknowledges Beijing’s “One China” policy, while also continuing to provide Taiwan with military assistance.

Media outlets often define the island of 23 million people simply in relation to the interests of the superpowers. Ann’s story explores the aspirations of the Taiwanese – how they view themselves, how they want to live and be treated. Many stressed that they value the freedom and democracy they’ve built on Taiwan, and believe China should respect that.

Many younger, outward-looking Taiwanese are proud of their identity, and say they feel particularly irked by China’s efforts to exclude them from formal diplomatic spaces.

“A lot of being Taiwanese is figuring out how to be Taiwanese in the world when you have the China factor,” the American-educated podcaster Emily Wu, co-founder of Ghost Island Media, tells Ann. Ms. Wu is annoyed at constantly finding Taiwan listed as a “province of China.”

“They are equivalent to microaggressions. Some seem tiny, but they matter a lot,” she says at her startup’s Taipei office. “In the long term, we want to have space and a say and standing internationally.”

China continues to insist that Taiwan is a breakaway province from “One China,” and threatens to reunify by force, if necessary. The Taiwanese people, now part of a vibrant and prosperous democracy, hope for a peaceful resolution to this long-standing state of limbo. But mostly, they want to preserve the kind of life they’ve worked so hard to build.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to A Taiwanese identity emerges
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/From-the-Editors/2024/0903/taiwan-identity-democracy-peace
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe