China sees self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing's control. President Xi says that the island is the ‘core of the core’ of China’s interests. Unification is essential to his dream of great rejuvenation. But Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.

Looking back, Taiwan has been home to various indigenous tribes for centuries. However, from 1624 to 1949, Taiwan underwent a series of foreign and regional rulers. The Dutch established a colony in southern Taiwan in 1624, while the Spanish briefly controlled the north from 1626 to 1642. In 1662, Ming loyalist Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) expelled the Dutch and set up a short-lived regime.  

The Qing Dynasty annexed Taiwan in 1683, integrating it into Fujian Province and later establishing it as a separate province in 1887. Then during the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Japan ruled Taiwan as a colony until the end of World War II in 1945.

After Japan’s defeat in 1945, the Allied powers placed Taiwan under the administrative control of the Republic of China (ROC). Then in 1949, as the Chinese Civil War intensified, the Kuomintang lost mainland China to the Communists and retreated to Taiwan, establishing it as the ROC’s new base. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing and declared itself the sole legitimate government of all China, including Taiwan.

As this short timeline demonstrates, there are issues with the CCP’s historical claim to Taiwan. The claim is not as “principled” and “consistent” as it is portrayed to be. The CCP has never governed Taiwan. What’s more, between 1928 and 1943 Communist Party leaders actually recognised the Taiwanese as a distinct “nation” or “nationality”.