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A response to "separatist acts" -

On May 23, 2024, China launched two days of so-called "punishment drills" around Taiwan in what it said was a response to "separatist acts." The joint military exercises were caried out by the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command and comprised naval vessels and military aircraft.

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China-Taiwan military drills -

Taiwan said it detected one Chinese jet, eight navy ships, and four coast guard vessels around the island. The Taiwanese Defense Ministry responded by deploying aircraft, navy vessels, and costal missile systems.

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Intimidation tactics -

The exercises took place just days after Taiwan's new president, Lai Ching-te, was sworn in. He had called on Beijing to cease its intimidation tactics. His comments angered the island's powerful neighbor, with Beijing vowing to eventually "unify" Taiwan with the mainland, using force if necessary.

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Joint Sword 2024A televised -

China screened news coverage of the exercise, codenamed Joint Sword 2024A, across the country to publicize the military maneuvers. But why is there such animosity between Beijing and Taipei? To answer that question, we must examine Taiwan's often complicated history.

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Early history -

In the 17th century, the island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was divided between aboriginal kingdoms and Chinese and European settlers, most prominently the Dutch.

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Kingdom of Tungning -

Control of Dutch Formosa was seized by Koxinga, a southern Ming general, in 1662. He promptly founded the Kingdom of Tungning, also known as Tywan by the British at the time.

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Qing dynasty rule -

The island changed hands again in 1683 after its conquest by Emperor Kangxi, when it came under Qing dynasty rule. Kangxi made it a prefecture of the Chinese mainland's Fujian province, which faces the Taiwan Strait.

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Treaty of Shimonoseki -

In 1895 after it lost the First Sino-Japanese War, China ceded Taiwan, among other territories, to Japan by signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

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Tapani Incident -

For the islanders, life under Japanese rule was not a happy one. In 1915, an armed uprising by Taiwanese Han and aboriginals was brutally suppressed. This event, which became known as the Tapani Incident, provoked a nascent civic and political movement and the first hushed calls for independence.

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Wushu Rebellion -

Japan's treatment of Taiwan's aboriginal population had always been harsh. Things came to a head in 1930 with the Wushu Rebellion. The Seediq indigenous people attacked a village, killing over 130 Japanese. In response, the occupiers massacred over 600 Seediq in merciless retaliation.

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Second World War -

During the Second World War, Japan developed Taiwan into a naval and air base. As a result, the island was heavily bombed by American aircraft stationed on carriers, including the USS Hancock (pictured).

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Sun Yat-sen and the founding of Kuomintang -

While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was founded on mainland China on January 1, 1912. Most of the country came under the control of the Chinese Kuomintang, a political party founded by Sun Yat-sen, who is still revered today as the "Father of the Nation."

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Cairo Conference -

In 1942 as the war raged, the Kuomintang, which was based on the mainland, renounced all treaties with Japan and demanded the return of Taiwan as part of any post-war settlement. This request was endorsed by the Allies at the Cairo Conference in Egypt the following year.

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End of the Japanese Empire -

Before 1945, the Japanese Empire spanned Korea, Russia's Sakhalin region, and Taiwan. At the end of hostilities, the United States led the Allies in the occupation and rehabilitation of the Japanese state. Taiwan was placed under Chinese administrative control.

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February 28 incident -

Two years later, discontent with Kuomintang's centralized rule boiled over into what became known as the February 28 incident, or the 228 massacre. Anti-government protests in Taiwan were violently suppressed, with thousands killed. The event further fueled impetus for a Taiwan independence movement.

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Chinese Civil War -

The Republic of China, meanwhile, had long been at war with the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed civil conflict had in fact raged since 1927, but in 1949 Mao Zedong's armies finally declared victory. 

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Communist victory -

Communist triumph on the mainland in what effectively had been a revolution led to evacuation of the mainland Kuomintang government to Taiwan, along with about two million refugees.

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Martial law imposed -

Relocated and in shock, the Kuomintang government immediately imposed martial law across the island. What followed was a period of political repression of Taiwanese civilians and political dissenters known as the White Terror. Mainlanders, as the Kuomintang government was disparagingly called, would dominate the island until 1987, when martial law was finally lifted. 

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Recognition as a legitimate government -

Despite internal instability, the Taiwan-based Republic of China government retained UN and Western recognition as a legitimate government of all China until the 1970s.

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Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s -

Taiwan in the 1950s and '60s enjoyed economic prosperity and rapid industrial development. The US was happy to prop up the Kuomintang and its one-party rule on the grounds of opposing any Communist threat.

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Kaohsiung Incident -

By the early 1970s, however, the political landscape was changing. The UN recognized Communist China as sole government of the whole country. In 1975, Taiwanese prime minister Chiang Ching-kuo initiated a cautious policy of liberalization. The policy backfired, however, after a 1979 incident where police killed pro-democracy demonstrators and arrested all opposition leaders. It's remembered as the Kaohsiung Incident.

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US severs diplomatic ties with Taiwan -

On December 15, 1978, US President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would sever its ties with Taiwan and reestablish diplomatic relations with China. On January 1, 1979, Washington officially recognized the People's Republic of China.

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Martial law lifted -

In 1987, President Chiang Ching-kuo finally abolished martial law in Taiwan. For the first time in decades, families were allowed to visit relatives on the mainland.

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'Taiwanisation' policy -

Chiang Ching-kuo's successor, Lee Teng-hui (pictured), authorized further reforms as part of his 'Taiwanisation' policy. Among these was the relaxing of restrictions on native language and culture.

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Military drills resume -

Free elections in 1996 prompted Communist China to try and disrupt proceedings with a series of missile tests and military exercises on the mainland coast close to Taiwan in an effort to intimidate the electorate.

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Crushing the "vicious rise" of independence -

China's saber-rattling continued into the new millennium. Here, soldiers march in the snow during a five-day military exercise in northwest China in 2004, ostensibly to crush the "vicious rise" of Taiwan's independence.

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Responding in kind -

Taiwan responded in kind with their own show of strength, carrying out a military exercise on a beach off the town of Linkou, south of Taipei, in August 2005, simulating an invasion by China.

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Pro-independence support -

While Taipei lifted a 50-year ban on direct trade and investment with China in 2001, the noughties were generally marked by increased saber-rattling between Taipei and Beijing. In 2008, the visit of Chen Yunlin, China's top negotiator on Taiwan, was met with noisy protests by pro-independence supporters.

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Meeting of minds? -

On February 11, 2014, China and Taiwan held their first government-to-government meeting in more than six decades. This significant get-together took place in Nanjing, four years after the two sides had signed a landmark free trade pact, seen as the most significant agreement in 60 years of separation.

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Historic talks -

The following year, Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou and China's President Xi Jinping met in Singapore for historic talks, the first such meeting since the Chinese Civil War ended and the nations split in 1949.

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Nancy Pelosi meets Tsai Ing-wen -

Tensions escalated again when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022 and met Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen. Beijing immediately launched joint military exercises around the island and closed down cooperation and dialogue channels with Washington.

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An isolated sovereign nation -

While the United States continues to pledge support for Taipei, as of February 2024 just 11 countries, including Vatican City, officially recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country. Meanwhile, tit-for-tat brinkmanship continues to blight relations between the island and the mainland.

Sources: (BBC) (Council on Foreign Relations) (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) (Reuters) (CNN) (World Population Review)

See also: The space war is closer than you imagine

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