Taiwan’s evolving self-definition toward de facto independence triggers Chinese readiness to use force

Evidence

In effect the relations of Taiwan to the mainland have gone through two phases and could enter a third. For decades the Nationalist government claimed to be the government of all of China; this claim obviously meant conflict with the government that was in fact the government of all of China except Taiwan. In the 1980s the Taiwanese government dropped this pretension and defined itself as the government of Taiwan, which provided the basis for accommodation with the mainland concept of “one country, two systems.” Various individuals and groups in Taiwan, however, increasingly emphasized Taiwan’s separate cultural identity, its relatively brief period under Chinese rule, and its local language incomprehensible to Mandarin speakers. In effect, they were attempting to define Taiwanese society as non-Chinese and hence legitimately independent of China. In addition, as the Taiwan government became more active internationally, it, too, seemed to be suggesting that it was a separate country not part of China. In short, the Taiwan government’s self-definition appeared to evolve from government of all of China, to government of part of China, toward government of none of China. The latter position, formalizing its de facto independence, would be totally unacceptable to the Beijing government, which repeatedly affirmed its willingness to use force to prevent it from materializing. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 470

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the chapter’s central civilizational framework — the idea that cultural identity redefinition (defining Taiwanese as non-Chinese) is the cognitive precondition for political independence claims, echoing Huntington’s overarching thesis about civilizational identity driving conflict.
• SEED: Could be an angle: how a territory’s ‘decolonizing’ or ‘de-Sinifying’ move parallels identity transitions seen elsewhere (e.g., Ukraine’s cultural reorientation away from Russian)—a comparative piece on how cultural identity redefinition precedes political separation.