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TAIPEI, Taiwan — U.S. authorities say the gunman behind an assault on a church in southern California by which one individual was killed and 5 injured was motivated by a hatred for Taiwan.
Though born in Taiwan, David Chou nurtured a resentment towards the Taiwanese and reportedly had ties to a China-backed group devoted to furthering Beijing’s purpose of annexing the self-governing island, by pressure if obligatory.
That has revived questions concerning the advanced and typically antagonistic relationship between the 2 sides, which separated amid civil conflict in 1949 and have adopted very totally different paths since then — the one towards liberal democracy, the opposite towards more and more repressive authoritarian rule beneath the Chinese language Communist Occasion, which claims Taiwan, regardless of by no means having ruled the island.
The next is a take a look at that background and the present state of affairs between the edges.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY BETWEEN CHINA AND TAIWAN?
Taiwan had solely been a Chinese language province for 10 years earlier than it was ceded to Japan as a colony in 1895, and was later handed over to Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China on the finish of World Warfare II. Taiwan separated once more from China in 1949 when Chiang relocated his authorities to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to energy on the mainland.
Whereas they’ve established sturdy financial ties, efforts at political reconciliation have stumbled lately as Taiwan asserts its personal id and China ups its calls for that the island settle for its phrases for unification between the edges.
WHAT ABOUT DIVISIONS WITHIN TAIWAN?
Native Taiwanese and mainland migrants have been divided initially by language, tradition and politics, with the mainlanders persevering with to determine intently with China and holding to Chiang’s dream of ultimately returning dwelling as victors. Below almost 4 a long time of martial regulation, political energy resided primarily with the mainlanders whereas Taiwanese dominated the personal sector.
Whereas there was some intermarriage, frictions, confrontations and bullying between them weren’t uncommon. Some mainland youth shaped gangs with hyperlinks to organized crime, the federal government and army, partly as a method of defending their pursuits. Amongst youthful islanders, such divisions have largely receded together with the flourishing of the separate Taiwanese id.
Now 68, Chou seems to have been pretty typical of the “second technology mainlander” cohort who by no means absolutely built-in into Taiwanese society or got here to see the island as something apart from a province of the China they continued to determine with.
Chou appeared to have left Taiwan earlier than the method of democratization and the Taiwanese id took maintain, so his participation within the pro-reunification group, by “Taiwanese requirements is pretty fringe,” mentioned James Lin, a historian of Taiwanese historical past on the College of Washington.
Taiwan’s politics “are totally different from the perimeter diasporic politics,” Lin mentioned.
WHAT ARE THE GOVERNMENTS’ POLICIES?
China says Taiwan is part of its territory with no proper to unbiased recognition as a state or illustration on the world stage. Since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took workplace in 2016, Beijing has refused all contacts along with her authorities.
China sends army plane into Taiwan’s air protection identification regularly in what it calls an commercial of its menace to make use of pressure. It has adopted more and more menacing language, warning that Tsai, her ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Occasion and others can pay a dire worth for refusing its calls for and that Taiwan will likely be attacked if it declares formal independence.
Tsai says Taiwan has no have to make such a declaration since it’s already de-facto unbiased, and has refused to fulfill China’s fundamental demand that she acknowledge Taiwan as a part of the Chinese language nation. She has constructed up Taiwan’s historically sturdy ties with the U.S., Japan and different allies as she has sought to spice up the armed forces’ capacity to withstand a possible Chinese language invasion.
HOW DO THEIR PUBLICS VIEW THE SITUATION?
China permits no unbiased polling on the query, however public sentiment tends to run strongly in favor of its arguments on the necessity for, and inevitability of, unification between the edges. That’s solidly in keeping with the Communist Occasion’s relentless propaganda on the problem and the strongly nationalist tone it has adopted since jettisoning orthodox Marxism.
In distinction, help for unification has fallen to single digit percentages in Taiwanese public opinion polls, with the overwhelming majority favoring a continuation of the established order of de-facto independence. Most now determine completely as Taiwanese, with the federal government and plenty of social organizations supporting that view. The Presbyterian church, whose parishioners have been attacked within the California church, has been intently related to the pro-democracy motion and promotion of Taiwan’s unbiased id. It is nonetheless unclear whether or not the gunman focused the church due to its Presbyterian affiliation.
Considerations have additionally risen about Chinese language affect on Taiwan’s media and the affect of propaganda campaigns pressed by the Communist Occasion’s United Entrance Work Division, which works in abroad Chinese language communities and below-the-radar in Taiwan to advertise China’s political agenda. At a information convention in Taipei on Wednesday, Presbyterian Pastor Chen Shin-liang mentioned the federal government ought to seize the incident to “withstand the hate speech unfold by some United Entrance teams in Taiwan.”
ARE CONFRONTATIONS FREQUENT?
Tensions are increased now than they’ve been in years, however outdoors of China’s army threats they’ve been largely relegated to rhetorical and diplomatic sparring.
Abroad, Chinese language and Taiwanese communities overlap in some conditions, however Beijing’s demand for political loyalty creates deep fissures. Taiwanese and Chinese language keep their very own scholar teams on campus, with China sustaining strict management over its nationals. That scenario is mirrored within the enterprise group and politically aligned teams such because the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceable Nationwide Reunification, with which Chou reportedly had hyperlinks. Because the taking pictures, pictures have appeared of Chou talking at one of many group’s occasions in his dwelling of Las Vegas.
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Related Press author Huizhong Wu and video journalist Johnson Lai contributed to this report.
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