Chinese threat reinforces Taiwan’s national identity

In a museum of Taipei, once a former jail for political prisoners, visitors welcome the modern democracy of taiwan and forge the identity of the island against the authority of China.

Situated in a park in the capital, the Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial is a brutal reminder of the island’s history.

At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the defeated Nationalists took refuge in Taiwan. Its single party, the Kuomintang, ruled the island with an iron fist for decades. Secret courts tried people accused of helping communists across the Taiwan Strait. Thousands of opponents were executed and tortured.

“I heard that people were arrested for having protested with the government”said Mars Hung, an office worker, after visiting the museum that shows the repression carried out between 1947 and 1987.

“We are so free now”says this 24-year-old man. “Taiwan is synonymous with democracy. We don’t have as many restrictions as in China.”apostille.

Taiwan lives under the threat of communist China, which considers the island part of its territory and is willing to take it back even by force. Pressure has been mounting under President Xi Jinping, who said in 2019 that “reunification” with Taiwan was “inevitable”.

Most Taiwanese do not feel they are of Chinese origin and claim a sovereign nation, which has forged an identity based on democratic ideals.

“A free and quiet place”

“I was born in Taiwan and I live in Taiwan, so I am Taiwanese”says Angela Hung, 50, an employee of the Jing-Mei museum.

“It is a free and calm place (…) I hope that our current way of life will be maintained”account.

The threat from Beijing, which has lasted for decades, has reinforced the identity of the island’s 23 million inhabitants, explains Rick Lai, a history student.

“This feeling of insecurity makes Taiwanese more aware of who they are”this 22-year-old man abounds.

Around the 60% of residents clearly feel Taiwanese, more than triple the number in the 1990s, according to a recent survey.

Attachment to Chinese identity has fallen drastically, from 25% less than 3%. And a third feel Taiwanese and Chinese at the same time.

just a little more than 1% of Taiwanese want the island to be unified with mainland China. And an overwhelming majority rejects the idea of ​​passing under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Taiwan is Taiwan”

Opposition to Beijing is not the only reason driving this Taiwanese national identity, says Sydney Yueh, a Taiwan researcher at the University of Missouri.

In his opinion, it is the strength of the island’s institutions and social freedoms that allow the inhabitants “consider their way of life different, even superior, to that of the Chinese”.

Some Taiwanese believe their historical link to China cannot be ignored, saying the island’s democracy is the only thing that sets them apart.

Some pro-China comments raise fears ahead of next year’s presidential election.

“I am concerned about our own change of government. Will our political leaders, for example, identify with Taiwan?wonders Thousand Hung, 20.

For Sam Chen, a 50-year-old salesman, Taiwan’s identity is already etched.

“They may think that we belong to them, but we are distinct and different (…) We are already independent”reiterates.

“Taiwan is Taiwan, China is China”ditch.

Source: AFP