18/10/2021
For many reasons, I have always been sympathetic to Taiwan and its 24 million people. In recent days we have seen Chinese airplanes hovering over or close to Taiwan’s air space, the Chinese army has a drill in Fujian province (South China and close to the Taiwan border); as if they are practicing to have a military invasion in Taiwan. Not much the world is saying about this, like, when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.
While China claims Taiwan to be a part of China, a breakaway province, it is still controversial if Taiwan actually is, depending on which side you support. Taiwan is a string of islands, situated about 160 kilometers east of China (Mainland) with a population of approx. 24 million people. After the defeat of Chiang Kai-Shek (the then nationalist leader of the Republic of China) by Mao’s communist party in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan with his followers as an exile government and ruled Taiwan as a dictator until his death in 1975. During these years, Taiwan was mostly supported by the US military and economic aids. Both mainland China (Peoples Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China) have gone through many changes over these years. Taiwan became the inventor and producer of most modern technologies, including the world’s most sophisticated semi-conductors (Used in most electronic equipment including mobile phones) and China became the ‘Factory of the World’. How both China and Taiwan achieved such unprecedented progress in such a short time, that’s another discussion for another day.
