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Can there ever really be “one China"? — Transcript

by Vox · 2,224 words · 375 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Take a look at Taiwan's passport covers
0:01through [music] the years. You'll notice
0:03that in the first few iterations, the
0:05words Taiwan never actually appears on
0:07the passport [music] cover. In fact, the
0:09word Taiwan doesn't even appear until
0:112003.
0:13>> [music]
0:13>> And that's because, well, Taiwan didn't
0:15always identify itself as Taiwan. It
0:17originally identified itself [music] as
0:19China, the Republic of China. But this
0:22is also China, the People's Republic of
0:24China. So, when did [music] Taiwan
0:26emerge as an identity of its own on this
0:29passport? And if the People's Republic
0:31of China is insistent on the one China
0:33principle, [music]
0:34is it even possible for Taiwan to
0:36maintain its autonomy?
0:39The story of how two Chinas emerged
0:41started in 1927 with a bloody civil war
0:44between two political parties, the
0:46Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese
0:48Nationalist Party. This war lasted over
0:51two decades. By October 1949, the
0:53Chinese Communist Party claimed victory
0:56and the Nationalist retreated to the
0:57island of Taiwan, which had previously
1:00been a Japanese colony, [music] but was
1:01handed over to China when Japan
1:03surrendered at the end of World War II.
1:05>> Beginning in December 1949,
1:08on his island sanctuary,
1:10Chiang worked toward the day when China
1:12could be freed from the Communist yoke.
1:15>> From 1949-1950
1:17onward, you have two separate
1:19jurisdictions. They both claim
1:21legitimacy, so they all both claim that
1:24they are representative of China.
1:26>> On the mainland, the Communists declared
1:27their country the People's Republic of
1:29China.
1:30On Taiwan, the Nationalists kept the
1:32name the Republic of China.
1:34>> There are multiple claims of what China
1:36is, what it ought to be, um, and it's
1:39confused by the fact that they use the
1:41same term.
1:42>> And you can see that reflected in the
1:43design of the first passport from Taiwan
1:46in 1949. [music]
1:47The cover only says passport of the
1:49Republic of China with no mention of
1:51Taiwan. To add some more complexity to
1:53the question of who is the real China,
1:56the ROC, not the PRC, got a seat as the
1:59founding member [music] of the United
2:00Nations in 1945, before the Chinese
2:03Civil War had even ended. This seat went
2:06[music] to Chiang Kai-shek, the then
2:07leader of the ROC, because he was the
2:10one who brought his army onto the side
2:12of the allies against Japan during World
2:14War II.
2:15>> Because [music] the ROC was one of the
2:17allies, it had an important role in
2:20establishing uh the the the United
2:22Nations, the basic institutions, and the
2:25UN Charter.
2:26>> From 1945 to 1971, the United [music]
2:29Nations recognized the Republic of China
2:31on Taiwan as the real China. But come
2:34the Cold War, the concept of China
2:35shifts.
2:37>> Essentially, the Soviets
2:39um and the PRC have a falling out. And
2:42the US is looking for an opportunity to
2:45[music] uh you know, put the Soviets in
2:46a tougher position. So, one of the
2:48things that they decide to do is to move
2:51closer uh to to the PRC.
2:53>> And how the US triangulated [music]
2:54itself between the PRC and the ROC
2:57became more and more significant.
2:59[music] Henry Kissinger, then the US
3:01National Security Advisor, secretly
3:03visited China in 1971. [music]
3:05Following his trip, President Nixon
3:07became the first US president to
3:08publicly visit Communist China [music]
3:10after two decades of diplomatic
3:12isolation. During this time, the UN
3:15passed Resolution [music] 2758,
3:17where it recognized the PRC as the only
3:19legitimate representative of China.
3:22>> [music]
3:22>> And with that, the ROC lost its seat at
3:25the UN.
3:25>> Beijing and Washington, they get closer
3:27because they both see a common enemy in
3:30the Soviet Union. The decision to move
3:32closer to the US remained actually quite
3:34contested within uh the PRC. Um
3:37uh the US was seen as the sort of
3:40the leader of the sort of imperialist
3:41capitalist world. So, it takes Mao dying
3:44in 1976 and also Deng Xiaoping coming to
3:48power and being able to [music] uh
3:49sideline his rivals for the US and PRC
3:53to move closer together.
3:54>> A new beginning in US-China relations.
3:58>> Three years after Mao's death, the US
4:00[music] formalized its own recognition
4:02of Beijing as the sole government in
4:04China. This [music] birthed America's
4:06version of the one-China policy.
4:08>> The government of the United States of
4:09America acknowledges the Chinese
4:11position
4:12that there is but one China, and Taiwan
4:15[music] is part of China.
4:17>> All right, I know it looks like it's
4:18just me out here, but producing stories
4:19like this takes a whole team. Reporters,
4:22editors, fact-checkers, animators,
4:24camera people you don't even see right
4:25now, so much more, all working together
4:28to make journalism that's accurate,
4:29nuanced, and hopefully fun to watch. And
4:32if high-quality independent journalism
4:34is important to you, then you would love
4:35our Vox community on Patreon. For a few
4:38dollars a month, you can get access to
4:40exclusive video reporting, new shows
4:42we're developing, and a chance to chat
4:43directly with our journalists, like me.
4:46And if you're not able to support
4:47financially right now, which is totally
4:49understandable, you can follow us on
4:50Patreon for free to stay connected and
4:52see what we're working on next. And now,
4:55let's get back to the video. Come the
4:56'80s and '90s, the concept of China
4:58evolved again as a new Taiwanese
5:00identity began to emerge, [music]
5:02especially as our government started to
5:04democratize.
5:05>> Taiwan was under martial law for 38
5:07[music] years. And so, by the early
5:101990s, Taiwan had moved from what was
5:14effectively a police state to [music]
5:17a full-fledged democracy.
5:19>> A pivotal moment took place in 1995. The
5:21president of Taiwan, [music] Lee
5:22Teng-hui, who had been appointed by his
5:24predecessors, so not yet democratically
5:26elected, spoke at his alma mater,
5:29Cornell [music] University.
5:30>> His visit to the United States is the
5:32first by a Taiwan leader since the
5:34United States severed diplomatic
5:36relations with that country in 1979.
5:39>> The administration of then US President
5:41Bill Clinton initially blocked Lee's
5:43visa.
5:44>> At that point in [music] time, the US,
5:46you know, was trying to still improve
5:48its ties with the PRC. It was very wary
5:51of a potential upsetting
5:54>> [music]
5:54>> of the relationship.
5:56>> But, the Republican-led Senate pushed
5:57for his visit to be approved.
5:59>> They went around President Clinton, who
6:02was in office at that time, and approved
6:04a unofficial visit by Lee Teng-hui to
6:06Cornell University.
6:08>> Today,
6:10the institutions of democracy
6:13are in place in the Republic of China.
6:17Human rights are respected and are
6:20protected to a very high degree.
6:24Democracy is thriving
6:27in my country.
6:28>> And that [music] visit was seen as
6:31important because it raised the
6:33visibility of the ROC as Taiwan. So,
6:37people in Taiwan saw that they had a
6:40degree of international recognition that
6:42Lee Teng-hui was
6:43>> [music]
6:43>> well received in the United States.
6:45>> It also marked a shift in the way the
6:46leaders of Taiwan viewed their claim on
6:48China as one China, but open to multiple
6:51interpretations.
6:53>> We
6:54in the Republic of China on Taiwan
6:57have found that peace through
7:00transformation
7:02must [snorts] take place
7:04gradually and with careful planning.
7:07>> Essentially, the Taiwan side, even
7:09though they kept the ROC name, accepted
7:12that, you know, their jurisdiction is
7:13limited to Taiwan, uh, Island, Penghu,
7:16Kinmen, and other outlying islands. They
7:19essentially accept, right, the PRC as
7:21being the government on on the mainland.
7:25>> But, Beijing saw Lee's visit as a
7:26violation of their one China principle,
7:29the one in which reunification was the
7:30goal, and Taiwan was part of the
7:32People's Republic of China.
7:34>> The PRC became very uncomfortable with
7:36Lee Teng-hui's increasingly and
7:39pro-Taiwan independence rhetoric. He
7:43followed Taiwan public opinion, which
7:44generally was not supportive of eventual
7:47unification with the PRC.
7:49>> The PRC clearly didn't like that very
7:51much. And so what they decided to do was
7:54to launch a series of missile exercises
7:57in '95 and '96. Now, some of that was to
8:01show opposition, but a lot of it was
8:02also to scare Taiwanese voters from
8:06supporting Lee Teng-hui, but the missile
8:08exercises had the opposite effect.
8:10>> The specter of China launching
8:13missiles near Taiwan's major ports led
8:17to a sort of rally around the flag
8:19effect where Lee Teng-hui became more
8:21popular than he was before. And in 1996,
8:23of course, [music] there was the first
8:25direct presidential election. Lee
8:27Teng-hui ran in and won that election.
8:30>> From there, Taiwan's position veered
8:31further from the one China that the PRC
8:33envisioned.
8:35By 2000, the people of Taiwan elected
8:37Chen Shui-bian, their first president
8:39from the Democratic Progressive Party, a
8:41new party whose charter included
8:43aspirations for independence.
8:45>> It's not necessarily a
8:48you know, declaration of independence,
8:50but it was it was there because of the
8:53sort of coalition that they had to
8:54build.
8:55>> This marked a significant change since
8:57Lee's Cornell speech that still
8:58identified his country as the [music]
9:00Republic of China on Taiwan.
9:02>> We've now got a Taiwan today where the
9:04large majority of people in Taiwan
9:06identify as just [music] Taiwanese. And
9:08so that then shifts the incentives of
9:12politicians running for elected office.
9:14[music]
9:15>> In 2002, President Chen pushed forward
9:17legislation to add the English word
9:19Taiwan [music] to their passport. By
9:212003, the first passports with Taiwan on
9:24the cover were issued. Since then, the
9:26word Taiwan has remained on the Republic
9:28of China [music] passport, and the text
9:29itself has gotten larger, a reflection
9:32of how design mirrors identity.
9:34>> And there's a the
9:35reason for this [music] as well. It
9:37clarified that this was not the People's
9:39Republic of China. As a practical
9:41matter,
9:43the Taiwan ROC passport today is
9:46actually relatively powerful.
9:49>> But as the word Taiwan became more
9:50prominent alongside Taiwanese identity,
9:53so has Beijing's calls for nationalism
9:54[music]
9:55and its one China reunification goals.
9:58>> What happens is the PRC becomes the
10:01world's second largest economy.
10:03It has a lot more capabilities
10:05that it can bring to bear. So it really
10:07wants to further isolate Taiwan and
10:08bring it under its fold if possible. And
10:11so it starts [music]
10:13trying to be more insistent on its one
10:16China principle.
10:17>> So many other countries which could
10:19safely ignore Chinese objections [music]
10:2225 or 30 years ago are now in a much
10:25more vulnerable position. The PRC has
10:28much more leverage economically over a
10:30lot of countries.
10:31>> As recently as May 2026, China removed
10:34tariffs on all African nations except
10:36for one, Eswatini, a country that still
10:38has diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
10:41As for the [music] US, one of the
10:42largest trading partners of the PRC,
10:45>> President Xi stressed to President Trump
10:47that the Taiwan question is [music] the
10:49most important issue in China-US
10:50relations. Talk to me about that moment
10:52when that
10:53>> certainly feel that way and and they
10:54always raise that issue. And we
10:56understand they raise that issue. From
10:57our perspective, any forced change
10:59[music] in the status quo in the
11:00situation that they're now would be bad
11:02for both countries.
11:03>> They do see value in the continued
11:08you know self-governance of Taiwan.
11:11Although they you know they are
11:12reluctant to do anything about Taiwan
11:15independence because they know that
11:16that's provocative.
11:17>> Though Taiwan does have its own economic
11:19bargaining chip. It's home to the
11:21company TSMC,
11:23>> [music]
11:23>> which manufactured over 90% of the
11:25world's semiconductor chips in 2024.
11:28>> So Taiwan, in other words, is
11:31economically
11:32just as important to the United States
11:35as the economic relationship with the
11:37PRC.
11:38>> Despite the US's reluctance to recognize
11:40Taiwan as its own country, it still
11:42hedges defensively against Beijing in
11:44the Asia-Pacific region. And the US
11:46remains Taiwan's biggest weapons dealer,
11:48supplying more than 70% of its
11:50conventional arms imports. But the
11:52people caught in the middle of this
11:54geopolitical crossfire are the residents
11:56of Taiwan itself, especially those who
11:58were born and raised there and have no
12:00connection to the revolutionary past of
12:02the Chinese [music] Civil War.
12:03>> They felt that that their futures were
12:06just given away
12:07without their consent.
12:09>> The PRC is not a democracy. There's no
12:11signs that it's going to become a
12:13democracy anytime soon. The idea of an
12:16independent Taiwan is still anathema to
12:18the CCP in Beijing and
12:21is probably a cause for war.
12:24>> The majority of people in Taiwan just
12:25want the status quo. They are willing to
12:27live with this sort of
12:30very vague international status that
12:32they have because they don't essentially
12:33don't want war.
12:34Even though they don't also don't want
12:36PRC or CCP control over them. Now, this
12:39gets us back to the question of what is
12:41China. Should it be some political
12:43entity or can it be something that's
12:44more vague? Today,
12:46as these claims about unity and control
12:48become more important, that vagueness
12:51becomes [music] more challenging.
12:52>> So, as the People's Republic of China
12:54becomes more powerful, how it enforces
12:56its version of the one-China principle
12:58and where the US chooses to stand will
13:01have major impacts on global [music]
13:03alliances, especially for Taiwan.

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