Answers: The Importance of Taiwan
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan sparked an unprecedented response from China, with its military carrying out its biggest-ever exercises in the seas around the island. For the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan is the key missing link from what was lost during the ‘century of humiliation’ at the hands of Western and Japanese colonisers until 1949.
Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist (Kuomintang) government fled across the Taiwan Strait after being forced out of power in the mainland by the Communists in 1949. With U.S. support, the ‘Republic of China’ held on to United Nations membership and a Security Council seat until 1971, when the General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan and admit the People’s Republic of China. As China’s economic, military and diplomatic clout grows, the number of countries recognising Taiwan has shrunk from 30 in the early 1990s to 13 now. To compete in international sporting events, Taiwan had to adopt the name ‘Chinese Taipei’ and use a flag different from its own.
Since 1949 both Communist China and Taiwan were under authoritarian, one-party rule. In 1979, both sides cracked down on pro-democracy movements. Beijing squelched the ‘Democracy Wall’ movement while the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Taiwan. But ten years later, China and Taiwan’s paths diverged. While China forcefully crushed the protest movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, Taiwan held limited legislative elections allowing the opposition Democratic Progressive Party to legally take part for the first time. Within months, mass student protests in Taipei known as the ‘Wild Lily Movement’ accelerated a shift towards fully democratic legislative and presidential elections. Since the 1990s Taiwan has entrenched its democratic credentials, along with a reputation for regular fist-fights in parliament (often used as a 20-second kicker to end TV news bulletins).
President Lee Teng-hui, who led the island during the democratic transition was the first leader of Taiwanese descent (benshengren). His predecessors Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo were ‘waishengren’, having moved from mainland China after the civil war with the Communists. Lee pushed for a Taiwanese identity distinct from the mainland, a notion promoted since then by the Democratic Progressive Party which is currently in power. That’s left the Kuomintang, perceived as China-friendly, facing an identity crisis. The benshengren-waishengren split had deadly consequences thousands of kilometres away in California, intersecting with U.S. gun violence. In May 2022, a U.S. citizen with ‘waishengren’ roots fired at parishioners inside a Taiwanese Presbyterian Church dominated by ‘benshengren’.
Beijing and Taipei under the Kuomintang reached what's known as the ‘1992 Consensus’ to guide their unofficial ties. Both sides ambiguously agreed on ‘One China’, with different definitions of what that means. Washington has officially followed a ‘One China’ policy after switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing. But it supplies arms to Taiwan while leaving it unclear whether it would defend Taiwan against an invasion under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, legislation that led to the phrase ‘strategic ambiguity’.
‘One China’ often trips up Western commercial interests, from John Cena to Snickers. But economic ties have become robust since the ‘1992 Consensus’. Mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 42% of Taiwan's exports in 2021 and Taiwan is one of the few economies that hold a trade surplus with China.
Answers
1) Who was the seniormost U.S. politician to visit Taiwan (in 1997) before Nancy Pelosi?
Newt Gingrich, who was then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. More here and here. The Taiwan visit is a rare topic on which the Republican former speaker has backed Nancy Pelosi. More here on Pelosi’s reputation as a ‘progressive hawk’ on China including unfurling a banner at Tiananmen Square in 1991 honouring the victims of the crackdown two years earlier.
2) Who is the only U.S. President to visit Taiwan? The island contributed one million dollars to his memorial in Washington DC that was opened in 2020.
Dwight D. Eisenhower. The First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises occurred during his time in office. More on Eisenhower and Taiwan here
3) Nancy Pelosi’s last stop in Taiwan was the National Human Rights Museum within the Jing-Mei — — Memorial Park. What notorious part of Taiwan’s history is commemorated in the former prison complex?
Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park. ‘White Terror’ refers to the mass detentions and executions of political dissidents carried out under Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo during the period of martial law from 1949 to 1987. More here and here.
4) Taiwan controls Kinmen and Lienchiang County (Matsu), two island groups just a few kilometres away from mainland China. By contrast, it takes about an hour from these islands to fly to Taipei in Taiwan’s main island. Taiwan’s outermost islet in Kinmen County is less than two kilometres away from China’s port city of Xiamen. Image here
Kinmen (then known in the West as Quemoy) and Matsu were at the forefront of the first and second Taiwan Strait Crises in the 1950s as they faced intense shelling from the mainland. The U.S. considered using nuclear weapons against Communist China.
Quemoy and Matsu were major talking points in three highly-watched televised events in the U.S. in October 1960. What am I talking about?
The Kennedy-Nixon presidential debates. The question of U.S. intervention to protect Quemoy and Matsu was the most hotly contested topic in the second, third and fourth debates. Kennedy argued that it was not worth getting into a war over islands that are not ‘strategically defensible’ while Nixon countered, cautioning that giving up Quemoy and Matsu would set off a chain reaction favouring Communist China. More here, here and here.
From an anti-Communist Cold War frontline in the 1950s, Kinmen in recent years has transformed into one of the most pro-China parts of Taiwan, as tourism from the mainland surged. From 2018, Kinmen has been getting drinking water from the mainland through an undersea pipeline. More here
My quiz on U.S. Presidential debates from 2020 with the answers here.
5) What phrase, now coming up often in the media coverage of Taiwan, was coined by William S. Murray, a Professor at the United States Naval War College in a journal article in 2008 titled ‘Revisiting Taiwan’s Defense Strategy’?
Porcupine strategy. More here and here. William S. Murray’s 2008 article here.
6) In May 2022 Taiwan’s bid to join which world organisation’s annual assembly was blocked following pressure from China, despite support from the U.S. and UK?
World Health Organization. More here. Taiwan has been praised for its response to Covid-19 and the U.S. backed Taiwan’s failed bid to regain its observer status in the WHO’s World Health Assembly.
7) In November 2021 Taiwan notched up a diplomatic gain in Europe. Which country allowed the island to open an office under its own name (Taiwanese Representative Office) and not ‘Taipei’, angering China?
Lithuania. More here and here. Soon after Nancy Pelosi’s visit, Lithuania’s deputy transport minister led a delegation to the island. Beijing responded by imposing sanctions on her.
8) Which is the only African country that recognises Taiwan and not China? (also Africa’s last absolute monarchy)
eSwatini. More here and here. Burkina Faso shifted from Taiwan to China in 2018. Apartheid South Africa and Taiwan, both internationally isolated, shared cosy ties and collaborated on nuclear technology. China replaced Taiwan during Nelson Mandela’s presidency in 1998. More here, here and here.
9) Taiwan and a self-governing entity in Africa that’s not recognised internationally have been strengthening diplomatic ties. Taiwan opened its de facto embassy in the region’s capital in August 2020, while the region opened a representative office in Taipei the next month. Which self-ruled region?
Somaliland. More here, here and here.
10) Which is the only country in South America to recognise Taiwan?
Paraguay. More here, here and here
11) China has taken an outspoken role in the UN Security Council when it comes to this impoverished nation plagued by violence and political chaos. China clashed with the U.S. at the UN this year as it pushed for a ban on small arms. Beijing has denied any link between its stance at the UN and Taiwan (this country recognises Taiwan). Which country?
Haiti. More here, here and here. Some of the suspects linked to the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise in July 2021 broke into Taiwan’s embassy and were arrested there. More here and here.
More about Haiti’s troubled history in my earlier quiz here.
12) What was the significance of Chen Shui-bian’s victory in Taiwan’s presidential elections in 2000?
Chen Shui-bian was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party. The 2000 vote marked the Kuomintang’s first electoral defeat. Chen stepped into the political limelight in 1979 as a defence lawyer for pro-democracy protesters arrested in the Kaohsiung Incident during the era of one-party KMT rule. But in 2009 after he left office, Chen was jailed on bribery and money laundering charges. More here, here and here.
13) Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen offered an official apology to which community in 2016? She also set up a justice commission.
Taiwan’s Indigenous people. They make up about 2 percent of the island’s population. Waves of colonisation and forced assimilation began in the 17th century, continuing into the 20th. More here, here, here and here. President Tsai Ing-wen (the island’s first leader with Indigenous heritage) issued an official apology in 2016. More here.
Taiwan is widely considered to be the birthplace of Austronesian languages and cultures. It’s been highlighting this shared heritage in its diplomatic outreach with Pacific Island nations. More here and here. The Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru and Tuvalu recognise Taiwan while the Solomon Islands and Kiribati switched to Beijing in 2019.
Taiwan’s Indigenous communities are part of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the only UN forum open to anyone from the island.
January 2024 update: Nauru has broken ties with Taiwan and opted for China.
14) What was legalised by Taiwan on May 24, 2019, after a parliament vote spurred by a ruling by the top court? Taiwan remains the only place in Asia where this is legal.
Same-sex marriage. More here, here and here. But this month a global LGBTQ gathering planned to be held on the island in 2025 was cancelled after organisers demanded the removal of the word ‘Taiwan’ from the title.
Thailand is moving towards granting legal recognition to same-sex partnerships, but it is not clear whether it will be through civil unions or full marriage equality. More here. In Vietnam, same-sex marriage was decriminalised in 2015 but same-sex marriages are still not legally recognised. More here.
15) A trailer for this film released in 2019 showed the lead character wearing a jacket without the flag patches of Taiwan and Japan. This was interpreted as another example of Hollywood pandering to China as it replaces North America as world’s largest moviegoing market (more on that in my earlier quiz on China and Hollywood here). But the flags were back on the jacket when the film was released in 2022 and it’s been a big hit in Taiwan. Name the film.
Top Gun: Maverick. More here and here.
16) This director from Taiwan made his first film Pushing Hands in 1991 thanks to funding from the state-run Central Motion Picture Corporation. He went on to become the first Asian to win the Best Director award at the Oscars. Who?
17) How did an alumni reunion at Cornell University in the U.S. spark a geopolitical crisis in 1995?
Taiwan’s then president Lee Teng-hui, holder of a doctorate in agricultural economics from Cornell University was granted a U.S. visa to visit an alumni reunion despite China’s objections. China fired missiles just off Taiwan’s coast. Months later, more missiles were fired by Beijing just before Taiwan’s first democratic presidential election in 1996. Lee Teng-hui won comfortably.
18) What was Taiwan forced to halt in the late 1980s following U.S. pressure amid the defection of Colonel Chang Hsien-yi, a senior figure in the island’s plans (he was recruited by the CIA in the 1960s).
Nuclear weapons programme. More here and here.
19) This manufacturing giant headquartered in Taiwan is formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd and has extensive operations in mainland China. How is the company better known?
Foxconn, known for assembling iPhones. Foxconn is the largest private-sector employer in mainland China and the world’s largest contract manufacturer of consumer electronics. Apple’s top four contract manufacturers - Foxconn, Wistron, Pegatron and Compal - are all from Taiwan.
Apple and its contract manufacturers have been taking steps towards diversifying from China. Foxconn is expanding operations in India, manufacturing iPhones in the state of Tamil Nadu. More here and here. Both Foxconn and rival Wistron, which operates from the state of Karnataka, have faced difficulties navigating India. But that has not prevented a third company from Taiwan, Pegatron, from setting up shop in India.
20) After a quarter century with Texas Instruments in the U.S., Morris Chang was tapped by the Taiwan government to head a research body. In 1987 he launched a state-backed company at the age of 56. It focused on manufacturing a particular product and is now the world leader in that product, crucial to global supply chains in multiple industries. Name the company and the product.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductors (computer chips). More here, here and here. Among the U.S. politicians who visited Taiwan in August was the Governor of Arizona, the country’s longtime hub for semiconductor manufacturing. TSMC is now building a plant in Phoenix, the largest foreign direct investment in Arizona’s history.
Foxconn has recently expanded into semiconductor manufacturing. More here and here. In September 2022 Foxconn and mining giant Vedanta announced plans to set up India’s first chip factory in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat (Foxconn pulled out of the venture in 2023).
21) Taiwan in 1895 became which imperial power’s first colony in the modern era?
Japan. Unlike mainland China and Korea which have bitter memories of Japanese colonialism, many in Taiwan credit Japanese rule for bringing education and infrastructure to an agricultural island. More here, here and here. Japan also brought baseball to Taiwan. More on that in my quiz here on baseball beyond the U.S.
22) Kung Tsui-chang is a Senior Advisor to Taiwan's president and has the hereditary title of ‘Sacrificial Official’ which he inherited from his grandfather, Kung Te-cheng, who died in 2008. Whose 79th-generation direct descendant is Kung Tsui-chang?
Confucius. The family fled from Qufu in mainland China to Taiwan during the 1945-49 civil war.
23) In 2016 his 150th birth anniversary was commemorated with gusto on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Communist Party hails him as the ‘forerunner of the democratic revolution’. He is officially hailed in Taiwan as ‘Father of the Nation’, Who?
Sun Yat-sen, who played a key role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1911 and became the first leader of the Republic of China. More here, here and here. Sun founded the Revive China Society on November 24, 1894 which later evolved into the Kuomintang.
24) The men’s doubles final in this sport at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 saw Taiwan besting China and one of the winners posted ‘I am from Taiwan’ on Facebook. There were angry reactions to the loss on Chinese social media while in Taiwan the win reignited a debate over the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ at the Olympics. Which sport?