After more than a century of de facto separation from the Chinese mainland by Japanese colonialism and U.S. intervention, Taiwan remains a rhetorical and military flashpoint of renewed Cold War aggression on China.
This selected timeline and resource compilation provides a deeper look into the forces that have produced “Taiwan independence” as a political consensus shared by U.S. politicians, erstwhile Western leftists, and Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Amidst warmongering rhetoric fueled by Western claims of imminent Chinese invasion, this compilation serves as a starting point for understanding China’s aspirations for national reunification and Taiwan’s overdetermined status as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” for Western ideological, economic, and military power in Asia and the Pacific.
Table of Contents
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a. Pre-Colonial Taiwan and Early European Colonization
b. Century of Humiliation, Japanese Colonization, and World War II
c. Post-World War II, Cold War Containment, and Military Dictatorship
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a. Perspectives from the Pro-Unification Left
b. Cold War Anti-Communism, Imperialism, and Ideology
c. Contemporary Economics and Geopolitics
d. Sinophobia, De-Sinicization, and Classism in Taiwan
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 