A superficial observation of Taiwan’s national movements in the past thirty years

The Cold War is over, but history is not: a new round of threats posed by totalitarian states

It has been more than thirty years since the end of the Cold War in 1991. Originally, the world thought that it would usher in the historical end of the victory of capitalism and representative democracy. However, when China entered the WTO in 2001, the world realized that the "market" is very fair: as long as it can The powerful people who control the market order of a country and a place, even dictators and their interest groups, will gain access to the global market and compete with multinational corporate giants for power and profit. This is also a necessary condition for China's "peaceful rise" and Russia's ability to launch war. Totalitarian countries have adapted to "globalization" and created a market environment in which capital can expand "efficiently", but at the cost of the people enduring institutional practices that stifle human dignity and destroy the natural environment, such as the re-education camps in East Turkestan and the re-education camps across China. Haze damage.

Totalitarian states have not disappeared, and democracy has even regressed. China and Russia engage in foreign military exercises, cultural infiltration, and even cognitive warfare to export their own value systems and governance methods, trying to erase the "natural human rights" values ​​that are the cornerstone of Western democratic systems in every corner of the world.

Taiwan is not outside the general trend of the world. Taiwanese businessmen embedded in the global supply chain have long worked with Western countries to build China into the world's factory. This has not only laid the foundation for China's rise, but also made Taiwan's economy deeply dependent on China. In the 1990s when Taiwanese businessmen expanded westward, Taiwan was China's primary target for expansion. Chinese nationalists on the island fabricated the "1992 Consensus" to express their sincerity to China as Taiwanese politicians and to express their recognition that "China and Taiwan belong together." The rhetoric of "One China" has also been framed by pro-China politicians as a prerequisite for "making a fortune" or "wanting peace." After the Ma Ying-jeou administration came to power in 2008, it immediately began to integrate the cross-strait market and promote the political agenda of "promoting reunification through economic development." The young generation, which had already been trapped in the predicament of low income, not only found it difficult to recover due to the "22k Plan" in 2009, but also realized that The service trade agreement with China will allow Chinese people to come to Taiwan in large numbers, compete for job opportunities, and even become their own bosses. Therefore, when the Kuomintang legislators forced the Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for third reading the day after, a large number of young citizens occupied the Legislative Yuan for 23 days.

In hindsight, the March 18th Movement (Sunflower Movement) was the most important civil movement in Taiwan’s history. Scholar Wu Ruiren said publicly the year after the March 18th Movement:

"When the United States' grand strategy of pivoting to Asia, the U.S.-Japan security treaty is being renegotiated, and Japan wants to upgrade its armaments, the Sunflower Movement based on the high legitimacy of "democracy" has emerged as an anti-China force, echoing the United States in a positive way. The student movement has changed the geopolitical structure of East Asia to some extent. ” (Wu Ruiren, 2015)

This is the harbinger of the democratic camp’s resistance to totalitarian expansion. During the March 18th Movement, the people of Taiwan clearly expressed their collective will to be "anti-China" to the world: they showed the world that we were not only "opposed to cross-strait integration" but also "opposed to China's annexation."

No ambiguity. But politicians aspiring to high office rarely take such public stances. Just as "maintaining the status quo" has become the established line of the Tsai Ing-wen administration, the most radical statement during her tenure is that "Taiwan will never accept 'one country, two systems'." However, other actors have already separated themselves from the DPP government through public advocacy, discussion, and even participation in elections and urging the drafting of a constitution, striving for Taiwanese people's recognition of their own course of action and providing substantive support. What is the thinking path for these actors to intervene and transform reality?

History will not end, Taiwan has not yet been founded as a nation

If people want to gain profound meaning from their lives, they cannot help but examine how they perform the social roles they passively or actively assume. As a neighbor, a family member, a laborer or a rentier or the unemployed, a man or a woman or a person who defines himself without biological characteristics, a tribesman who speaks a certain ethnic language and celebrates a certain cultural festival, etc.... all kinds of things allow people to be able to The role of living together implies responsibilities, obligations and rights, and guides people on how to interact and communicate. The interpretation of many lives has become the essence of the Taiwanese community.

From the late 1980s and early 1990s, Taiwanese people rediscovered their hometown through overall community building. Reflect on the injustice among various ethnic groups and multiple gender identities, curb the uneven distribution and ecological damage caused by economic development, and advocate various social rights so that "the progress of the times" and "people's happiness" can be the same thing event has reconstructed the common vision of Taiwanese people.

A common vision awakens citizen consciousness, and citizen consciousness generates huge momentum for reform, allowing the DPP members who are willing to commit to reform to gain power many times and enable many progressive advocates to be codified in legislation. Today, Taiwanese people have the experience of "self-rule" and have the most free and open society in Taiwan's history. Taiwanese people use politicians or are incited by politicians to jointly promote the "constitutional order of the Republic of China" and use the government system of the Republic of China to respond to our own needs and crises. We have discovered from the experience of "self-governance" that the "constitutional order of the Republic of China" we drive is no longer able to respond to our own needs and current crises. After all, it was designed by the Chinese in the early 20th century based on their own desires for China. 's political system. "Self-rule" means that we can decide what our own lives will look like.

At the same time, market forces can already use the Internet to cross the borders of sovereign countries, penetrate into local society, and change the daily lives of local people. The content of the Taiwanese community can also be easily affected by those in power who influence market forces—including totalitarian states. -rewrite. China will certainly use market power, but the Taiwanese government does not have any effective regulatory tools to prevent e-commerce such as Shopee, social software such as Douyin, social networking sites such as Xiaohongshu, and video streaming such as iQiyi from penetrating into the daily lives of Taiwanese people. In life, Taiwanese people rely on these tools of exchange for information and goods, so they must surrender their freedom within the "limited choices" determined by those in power. Is this the “self-rule” we want? Is freedom still freedom when one is castrated by those in power and cannot challenge those in power? As long as material life can be satisfied, is it okay to pay for freedom? Hong Kong, once a free city, provides the answer.

The "constitutional order of the Republic of China" was originally designed to allow the ruling elite of Chinese immigrants after the war to continue the life of rulers in territories that did not belong to China. Even though the Taiwanese began to use this to achieve "self-rule" in the 1990s, we still accepted the "one-China framework" at the same time, a product of nationalism shared by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party uses it to wash away its unfinished political goals of being oppressed by foreign powers; the Chinese Kuomintang uses it to suppress the "Taiwanese identity" that naturally arises from historical experience, blocking the possibility of developing into a "Taiwanese national identity."

Over the years, Taiwanese people, who have never had their own nation-state, do not know what opportunities for development they have lost without national identity. Moreover, the "Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait" have followed market forces and geopolitical arrangements to carry out their own activities. In the internal colonization of the country, some Taiwanese first followed the arrangements of the Chinese on the other side and became part of patronage clientelism to share colonial benefits, or they became members of the "cross-strait political and business group" to share the dividends of the United Front, or even became members of China's internal colonization. Local collaborators. The Chinese have been trying to make Taiwanese people become Chinese citizens, blocking opportunities for Taiwanese people to become global citizens, and preventing Taiwanese people from becoming active members of the democratic camp.

It is impossible for citizens who identify with the Chinese nationalism, which is characterized by totalitarianism and ethnic chauvinism, to create a political system together with the Taiwanese citizen nationalism, which is based on freedom, equality, and democracy as its identity. Although there are institutional differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the attitudes and practices of local or Chinese politicians in Taiwan towards social issues reflect that they follow completely different values. Of course, this also allows politicians without core values ​​to talk about "blue and green fighting," avoid value discussions, ignore fundamental goals, and talk about "procedures" or "efficiency."

The national independence movement is a never-ending movement to return home.

The national consciousness of Taiwanese people is more likely to be weakened or even collapsed in the current world situation. This does not only depend on whether the individual's subjective will is strong enough, or whether there is a political system to consolidate collective historical knowledge. The Taiwanese sages at the beginning of the 20th century lived in a worse environment than we do, but they still shouted that "Taiwan is the Taiwan of Taiwanese people." We should not just regard this as the result of their passionate feelings for Taiwan, but also as the rational conclusion of the forefathers after thinking about the common destiny of Taiwanese people. Back to the present when the world situation is more complicated. Over the past century, Taiwanese people have responded to multiple world economic crises and multiple geopolitical shocks under various ruling orders. Even the ethnic composition of Taiwanese people has been changing, but they are still gradually changing. Form their own national identity and accumulate experience of self-governance. However, all Taiwanese people have not fully accepted that the will of "one island, one life" is the basis for Taiwanese people to unite to face the turbulent world situation. "Only Taiwanese people will think about Taiwanese people."

Looking at the national history of Eastern European countries, we learn that the regime may be overthrown by external forces, but the nation will remain in the identity of the survivors, forming a strong political will and mobilization force. Some commentators once believed that because Taiwanese people have not experienced war, they cannot form a firm Taiwanese identity. The author believes that war may inspire strong emotions and transform them into collective identity, but what Taiwanese need most is not a war, but a natural history exploration that treats ourselves as a field and unearths our own past. We can first follow the footsteps of foreign scholars to understand ourselves, but in the end we must develop a historical perspective with Taiwan as the main body.

After the 1980s, social initiatives surged, and the succession of local political powers enabled people to discover the past of Taiwanese people through textbooks, community guides, or various unearthed works of art, thus enabling Taiwan's subjective view of history to be rooted and developed. When we understand ourselves more clearly, we need to let the world deeply recognize the differences between Taiwanese and other people. Through deeper and closer friendship with democratic allies who share the same values, we can better understand the world history from the perspective of the world. Recognize your past and shape your future with allies who share your values.

In recent years, after Western countries have put aside their fantasies about China, they have expressed their friendship with Taiwan. Dignitaries from various countries have visited Taiwan in an endless stream. Many foreign NGOs have also supported the action plan of the Taiwan Initiative and even directly set up offices in Taiwan to communicate with Taiwanese citizens. Establish long-term and in-depth cooperative relationships with society.

In the past, Taiwanese have used the efforts of overseas students and immigrants to help foreign friends better understand our situation and recognize our propositions, and to support the reform work of actors in various fields on the island. At a time when Taiwan is attracting international attention, Taiwanese people need more assistance from overseas students and immigrants. It not only serves as a matchmaker for cooperation in various fields, but also serves as a close window for foreign friends who want to know Taiwan. However, overseas students and immigrants may not necessarily understand the current situation of Taiwanese society, and may even be biased by relying on the media. Therefore, we can learn from the experience of foreign NGOs, start planned and long-term exchanges with actors in various fields in Taiwan, and even develop cooperative relationships, continue to explore our own relationship with our hometown, and accumulate our own understanding of "Taiwan". "Community" in order to introduce Taiwanese society's abundant reform momentum to overseas friends.

Since the late 1980s, many overseas Taiwanese whose passports were canceled by the Kuomintang government have repeatedly returned to Taiwan in order to return to their hometown. For the author, the collective Taiwanese people are still engaged in a return-to-homeland movement, such as living in Taiwanese and understanding the world from a Taiwanese perspective : "Sńg kah Wu mà-mà 好无? "; or returning home. The " Hui Lai Qi Cheng " formed by young people in order to understand their hometown; or the " Warring States Formosa " which borrowed the perspective of Japan's Warring States Period to reconstruct the history of the local wealthy families in Taiwan from the Qing rule to the Japanese rule; so that the public can have a better understanding of the February 28th Incident. The " Symbiosis Music Festival " that I deeply understand is a "returning movement" under the current situation of the Republic of China.

Invite overseas Taiwanese to return home together with activists and groups scattered across the island. Don't come back just to vote. Influencing the election is important, but the more important and primary task should be to establish the existence of the Taiwanese nation in the minds of everyone, including foreigners.