Fluency, curiosity, and a bike: Letting Taiwan tell its own story
The story of China and Taiwan is often framed in terms of what China might do next. Our reporter went to Taiwan to report a deep story on Taiwanese perceptions of their collective identity and aims. She joined our podcast to talk about it.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will someday be united with the mainland, possibly by force. But the self-governing island increasingly views itself as a distinct country with its own laws and culture. Its people overwhelmingly want to maintain local autonomy.
“On Taiwan, about two-thirds of people consider them to be purely Taiwanese, and only 2% see themselves as purely Chinese,” says Beijing Bureau Chief Ann Scott Tyson on our “Why We Wrote This” podcast. “That is a big shift from several decades ago.”
This shift in national identity coincides with Taiwan’s transformation from an island under martial law in the 1980s to a thriving democracy of 23 million today. In bustling cities and sleepy coastal towns, Ann met farmers, security experts, Indigenous leaders, and young protesters who are feeling the pressure to protect that progress amid hostility from China.
She also witnessed a growing civil defense movement, one taking lessons from Ukraine on how to respond to mass casualty events.
What Ann didn’t see: panic. People in Taiwan are “just sort of calmly learning some skills,” she says, “that could be helpful in many circumstances.”
Episode transcript
Lindsey McGinnis: About 100 miles away from China is a thriving democracy of 23 million, and a geopolitical lightning rod. China’s government sees the island of Taiwan as a breakaway province, which will someday be united with the mainland, possibly by force. But Taiwan increasingly views itself as Taiwan, a distinct country with its own laws and culture, and where people overwhelmingly want to maintain local autonomy.
The Monitor’s Beijing bureau chief, Ann Scott Tyson, traveled to the self-governing island to see how its people were preparing for potential conflict. Her cover story is a sort of coming of age story for Taiwan, exploring issues of national identity, civic responsibility, and peace.
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McGinnis: This is “Why We Wrote This.” I’m Lindsey McGinnis, the Monitor’s Asia editor and this week’s guest host. And we’re here with Ann. Hi Ann!
Ann Scott Tyson: Hi, Lindsey. How are you doing?
McGinnis: Good, thanks. While you were there [in Taiwan], you met an indigenous Taiwanese man who had this great quote. He said: “China now is Taiwan of 50 years ago. We don’t want to go back.” I thought that really captured how Taiwanese people feel like the island has evolved beyond China in a lot of ways.
Tyson: Yeah, definitely. Currently on Taiwan, about two thirds of people consider themselves as purely Taiwanese, and only 2 percent see themselves as purely Chinese. Only one percent want immediate unification with China. That is a big shift from several decades ago.
Just to provide context for this, China’s communist government has never ruled Taiwan, but China does claim Taiwan as part of its territory, and has said that it will pursue unification ideally peacefully but, you know, has not ruled out the use of force if necessary.
I was riding my bike along the coast on this path, when all of a sudden I heard this unmistakable sound of fighter jets. And I ... stopped on my bike, looked up, and just watched these Taiwan Air Force jets thundering right over my head, out [over] the ocean. And you know, here you’re in this sort of beautiful, tropical, peaceful place. It was really jarring. And that was part of the daily reality as Taiwan’s Air Force trains, and it responds to almost daily incursions by Chinese jets and ships.
McGinnis: You also in the article describe a grassroots [civil]-defense movement that’s emerging in Taiwan, a different way that the country is preparing, outside of the military. Can you tell us about that and what you saw on the ground?
Tyson: Yeah, there is a very vibrant civil-defense movement on Taiwan now. There are a number of nonprofit organizations that have started to train individuals in basic first aid and, you know, how to deal with mass casualty events.
Part of it is from people on Taiwan looking at what’s happening in Ukraine, and learning from that, that in the worst case scenario of an invasion or a blockade or a military conflict, coming from the mainland, that Taiwan’s response cannot only depend upon its uniformed forces, but that it has to be a whole-of-society response.
This is not a bad idea for Taiwan, regardless of what happens. Such training is helpful for natural disasters like earthquakes that happen on Taiwan. Also such training tends to build cohesion and strengthen democracy by forging better ties between individuals, communities, first responders like police.
For example, I was covering a very large protest in Taipei, and there on the sidewalk a civil defense organization is offering CPR training to people who just happened to pass by, taking advantage of this large gathering. They had mannequins there, and they were leaning over them, giving compressions and learning how to do that. Um, at the community centers, there were a large group of people, and there was a much older woman, probably in her 80s, who was, you know, sitting there as a young paramedic showed her how to apply a tourniquet. And she did it, and just the look on her face when she looked up at him.... She seemed really, really proud that she had learned how to do this. And that just really moved me that this is how people on Taiwan are feeling. They’re not panicking. They’re just sort of calmly learning some skills that could be helpful for them in many circumstances.
McGinnis: But even though residents want to protect Taiwan’s hard won democracy, Taiwan’s army is struggling to recruit. Why is that?
Tyson: Well, part of it is the legacy of martial law, and the fact that Taiwan’s military forces, sort of have a little bit of a stigma, as having been connected to the martial law regime, not that long ago.
And the backdrop of that was that, in the late 1940s, Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Republic of China, which is the formal name for Taiwan, was on the mainland, lost the civil war to China’s communists, and then retreated to Taiwan. He established an authoritarian leadership and ruled Taiwan with martial law for many, many decades, and also did not tolerate a lot of Taiwan’s unique local identity. Finally martial law was lifted in 1987, as Taiwan started its journey to democracy. So there’s a little bit of that, just sort of how people view military service.
And, you know, there’s always a balance in any society between opportunities. You know, is the military a good opportunity, or are there plenty of jobs elsewhere? Um, there’s pretty much a direct correlation between the employment situation and how hard it is to recruit.
McGinnis: Yeah, it’s really interesting. And internationally, when we hear about Taiwan, it’s often in relation to major global superpowers like China and the U.S. and the people of Taiwan and their history can sometimes get lost in that narrative. This trip in part was the Monitor’s attempt to get on the ground and remedy that. So can you tell me a little bit about why you decided to travel specifically to the town of Taitung?
Tyson: Yeah, I really wanted to sample a variety of voices on Taiwan and meet people from as many walks of life as I possibly could. So I had been in Taipei for several days. And Taipei, in northern Taiwan, is a more liberal area. Eastern Taiwan, where Taitung is located, is traditionally a KMT stronghold. The KMT is the Kuomintang, that’s the party of Chiang Kai-shek, the party that traditionally has favored closer ties with Mainland China.
I also went there because they have a lot of farming, including a lot of Taiwan’s core crops like pineapples and other tropical fruits, so I wanted to talk to farmers. And then they also have a large indigenous population of Taiwan’s earliest inhabitants, and I wanted to meet these people and get their perspective as well.
So that was what took me down to the sort of sleepier coastal town of Taitung. And it was also fun riding the bike around there, you know, in the evenings. I saw the families gathered for their evening meals and they would often also set out incense burners, there were a lot of Buddhist and Taoist shrines that people had. So many things you could pick up by bicycle or foot.
McGinnis: So while you were there there was also a protest against a KMT bill that would limit the new president’s powers, so I take it you had no idea that that was going to happen.
Tyson: No I didn’t. I just happened to be having dinner, and the news was on the screen there. And I happened to mention to the restaurant owner: “Well, what do you think about this? What do you think about the protests in Taipei?” And she said, “Oh yeah, there’s going to be a protest here tonight.” So I hopped on my bicycle and went and found this street corner. And this was quite striking to me and unusual, because as we just explained, Taitung is a KMT stronghold. And yet here were people protesting against a KMT initiative in the legislature. And that, to me, was sort of a clue of how things are changing and evolving on Taiwan, with younger people and others very concerned about some of these KMT moves that they may be threatening Taiwan’s democracy.
McGinnis: I see. You’ve been to Taiwan several times, including in the late 1980s, when the island was still years away from holding its first democratic election. So much has changed since.
Tyson: Yeah, it really has been an amazing transformation. I remember meeting a leader of the then very new, emerging Democratic Progressive Party, the opposition party at that time on Taiwan, and having sort of furtive conversations, but excited conversations with the party leaders about how they were trying to be a valid political force in Taiwan.
So fast forward now, the DPP, has just won its third consecutive presidential term. And is the dominant ruling party on Taiwan right now. And that evolution really traces the flourishing of democracy, and also of Taiwan’s identity. Taiwan originally was colonized by the Dutch. Taiwan was also colonized by Japan. Then Chiang Kai-shek came from the mainland. So from the vantage point of people on Taiwan, they see themselves as having sort of been subjected to these waves of influence from the outside. And when they say that, you know, China is Taiwan of 50 years ago, I think that their perspective is that China is politically authoritarian, just like the KMT was under martial law. And they very much treasure their freedoms and do not want to go back to that place politically.
McGinnis: Well, I’m so glad you got to go. I felt like that was a great part of the story. And I really appreciate you coming on the show and discussing it with us.
Tyson: Of course. Really great talking with you, Lindsey.
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Clayton Collins: Thank you to our listeners. I’m Clay Collins, editor of “Why We Wrote This.” Reach me at collinsc@csmonitor.com with thoughts on this episode or any others. This episode was hosted by Lindsey McGinnis, and produced by
Jingnan Peng and Jacob Posner. Mackenzie Farkus is also a producer on this show. As always, you can find more, including show notes with links to Ann’s story on Taiwan, and to the rest of her work, at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. Our sound engineers were Tim Malone and Alyssa Britton, with original music by Noel Flatt, produced by The Christian Science Monitor. Copyright 2024.
