whats up with chinas sabre rattling? why the push for china’s admission into the global free market? are they not still screwing there own people like cuba? iraq? yemen? i could name 20 more . . is the clinton push harmony motivated? a hope that a gorbachev like figure will arise and initiate change from within? is this just to open u.s. markets to china . . sell nintendo, compaqs, and gap franchises? remember tiannamen? whats changed for the better since? a few press releases? is this detant? a way for the chinese to save face? windows 2000 ok’d by chinese? will taiwan be a sacrificial lamb? please speak up foreign policy “in the knows”. share some insight.
That’s a lot of questions but here’s an attempt at a summary of relations between the US, China, and Taiwan.
China is a political dictatorship that has a developing free market economy. One of the main goals of the Chinese government has always been to reclaim territory it feels it is historically entitled to. Currently the most significant of these areas is the island of Taiwan which was occupied by the Nationalist government after it was defeated by the Communist government in the 1940’s. For a long period both governments claimed that they were the sole legitimate government of all of China, but recently there has been a growing movement in the Taiwan government to declare itself the legitimate government of Taiwan only and withdraw all claims to the rest of China. If Taiwan did so, it would probably be recognized as a seperate nation by most other nations. China continues to claim sovereignty over Taiwan and has said it will occupy Taiwan if it declares seperation.
The United States has conflicting interests in China. For a long time, the US recognized the Nationalist government as the legitimate government of China, but in the 1970’s it recognized the Communist government and derecognized the Nationalists. But while the US no longer legally recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign nation, it has always been American policy to oppose any Chinese military attempts to occupy Taiwan. Occasionally, the Chinese government threatens Taiwan to see if the American resolve is still there and it always has been.
The confusion over the United States policy towards China itself is caused by different areas of Chinese society. Politically, the Chinese government is very oppressive and the US opposes this. However, China is also a growing free market economy. This means that many American business interests have entered into favorable relationships with Chinese businesses and do not want to see them endangered by political issues. On a less mercenary note, many other people believe that encouraging the growth of the Chinese economy will eventually lead to favorable changes in the Chinese political system.
To be correct, Nintendo is based in Japan, not the US.
“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” -Winston Churchill