The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China

A world for two Chinas

An old diplomatic conflict

The People's Republic of China, more commonly called China, is a powerful world power, according to some, called to replace the United States as the 1st superpower.

It is the most populated country in the world, the 3rd^er largest state and has the 2nd largest GDP.

In contrast, Taiwán, or according to its official name, the Republic of China, is a small-medium sized Asian state, with a moderate population and a minor economy than Türkiye or Indonesia.

As we can see in this comparison, there is only one element in common, or really comparable, between these two States: the name.

In today's world, there are two countries that claim to be China.

In this article we are going to focus on this peculiar conflict, to understand where it comes from and what direction it is taking, bringing you all the keys to understand it.

“In today's world, there are two countries that claim to be the real China. The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China

But first, a little history

La Republic of China, or RDC, is a limited recognition State, located in the pacific island of taiwan (plus a few archipelagos), with capital in Taipei and whose form of government is multiparty democracy, although it has undergone many changes throughout its history; which is extremely peculiar:

The DRC was established on January 1, 1912, after the revolution that, in 1911, ended the monarchy of the Qing dynasty.

The territory of this young Republic de jure It covered almost the same territory as today's People's Republic of China, with the exceptions of Tibet (which became independent after the fall of the monarchy) and Taiwan (which was in the hands of the Japanese), but the reality was that The dictatorial government of the Chinese Nationalist Party, called Kuomintang, was not capable of maintaining control of the entire territory., since a large part of the territory was controlled by military leaders called “Warlords”.

The main characteristic of political life in China at this time was the instability.

The Republic went through numerous crises, suffered coups d'état and changes in leadership while numerous military campaigns were carried out to put an end to these Warlords.

Furthermore, the newly established Republic could barely stand up economically, given that it was facing serious problems due to abusive trade agreements with the Western powers and Japan.

Within the framework of this instability, an important intellectual and cultural movement developed that advocated the modernization of China, this was the so-called May 4th Movement.

In the context of this movement, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921 with financing from the Comintern and began to proliferate in different environments of Chinese society.

This new political party with radical and revolutionary ideas with clear Soviet inspiration surprisingly did not get off on the wrong foot with the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party, but instead there was the integration of personalities from the Communist Party of China into the Kuomintang and a period of constructive cooperation.

Despite this good start, the cooperation ended up leading to a struggle for power that, after serious tensions between these political entities, resulted in the expulsion of the Kuomintang communists and a subsequent violent repression of Chinese communism.

With the communists removed from the institutions, the Kuomintang continued with its nationalist project of asserting Chinese sovereignty in the face of Western and Japanese contempt.

And the truth is that it achieved some success, until in 1931 Japan responded with an invasion of the Manchuria region to secure its interests in the territory, rich in industry and natural resources.

The instability caused by the sudden Japanese attack was responded to by the communists with the establishment of the Soviet Republic of China (not to be confused with the People's Republic of China, which this article also deals with), a de facto state created by the Chinese Communist Party in the areas under their control.

With this began a tough war with the Kuomintang that was paused in 1937, when the rivals allied themselves to face the even more worrying Japanese aggression.

United States – Japan relations

After the Japanese defeat in World War II, Japanese territories were ceded to the Republic of China, and hostilities continued between the Kuomintang Government and the communist rebels, who had a new leader, Mao Zedong.

These renewed hostilities had the character of a Civil War, which ended with the communist victory in 1949 and the establishment of the People's Republic of China (it is the China we normally think of when we think or talk about China), with capital in Beijing.

However, this communist victory and the creation of the People's Republic of China, or PRC, was neither definitive nor immediately accepted, the military victories of the communists were overwhelming, but there was at no time a surrender on the part of the Kuomintang, whose Government was exiled to the island of Taiwan, from where even today rhe claims, relying on his Constitution, the continental territory lost after the War.

Even if the Civil War came to an end, the conflict between the PRC (China) and the DRC (Taiwan) still continues today.

An international legal conflict

The war between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party reached international repercussions immediately, with the Soviet support for the Chinese communists, but it was generally considered a internal conflict.

The Western powers had lost some of the interest they had maintained in China during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Eventually, after the truce maintained during World War II, the Civil War resumed as we have already explained, and with it came greater interest on the part of the Western powers given the new geopolitical scenario that was established with the Cold War.

The Kuomintang, on the verge of losing the War, aligned with the Americans, and the Chinese Communist Party with the Soviet Union (with which it would later cut ties, due to political and ideological differences).

However, the post-Civil War conflict between the DRC and the PRC is more clearly configured within the framework of the United Nations Organization, and even within its Security Council.

The UN is one of the most relevant International Organizations in the contemporary world, its creation and consolidation are part of a radical change in the international system and a commitment to multilateralism unprecedented in history.

The document that establishes and acts as the supreme norm of the organization is the Charter of the United Nations, an international treaty signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, initially by 50 countries, but put into effect after the ratification of 6 States with a key role in the organization: United States, France, United Kingdom, Soviet Union (later Russian Federation) and the Republic of China (later, as we will explain, People's Republic of China).

This group of 5 States play a fundamental role in the Organization, given that they are the permanent members of the Security Council, with veto power for the resolutions taken by this body which, unlike those of the General Assembly, are binding on the Member States of the organization.

At the time of the signing and ratification of the United Nations Charter in 1945, the Civil War had just resumed in China, at a time when the Kuomintang Government enjoyed full international recognition, so From the beginning, the DRC was the Chinese representation in the UN.

From the moment Mao proclaimed the founding of the PRC in Beijing and the DRC went into “exile” on the island of Taiwan, a conflict at United Nations headquarters.

Which State should represent China? Can there be two representatives of China?

The UN tried to answer these questions with a series of resolutions, which show a position on the issue that evolved over time.

The first precedent for these resolutions regarding China would be the 396 resolution of 1950, in which it is recommended that, in cases in which more than one authority claims to be the legitimate representative of a State before the UN, the matter be considered by the General Assembly, which would take an attitude that should be considered by the rest of the UN organizations.

Despite being the first to speak out in this type of conflict, the lack of a decision process in a situation of these characteristics stands out.

The first document that takes action on the matter of the two Chinas is Resolution 505 of the United Nations General Assembly, which condemned the Soviet violation of the Sino-Russian treaty of friendship but, more importantly, called the Government of the DRC as the “Central Government of China”. However, in another Assembly resolution nine years after 505, resolution 1668, the General Assembly is clearly more doubtful about the designation of the DRC as the “Central Government of China” and declares any “proposal aimed at changing the representation of China” an important issue, which according to article 18 of the United Nations Charter requires a two-thirds majority in the Assembly to approve any decision that affects it.

Although, as resolution 505 demonstrates, the vast majority of States participating in the General Assembly in the XNUMXs recognized Taipei as the “Central Government of China,” as time passed and the potential of the PRC, more and more countries began to support the Government of Beijing as China's legitimate representative in the UN, despite the positions of the DRC, reunificationist and even nationalist.

This was mainly because the DRC's support came mainly from Western countries hostile to the communist ideology prevailing in the PRC and the USSR, but as the decolonization process progressed, more and more countries not necessarily aligned with Western positions regarding This issue they obtained the right to vote in the UN General Assembly.

In addition to this, many Western countries, especially European ones, were accepting the PRC as a representative of China due to its consolidation as a State in mainland China.

This led to Resolution 2758 of the United Nations General Assembly, which forcefully expelled “the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek [military and dictator of the DRC] from the position they illegally occupied in the United Nations” and restored the Republic to Popular China all its rights as a member of the organization while its representatives were recognized as China's legitimate representatives in the UN.

From this moment on, the DRC loses all legitimacy as the Chinese representative in the UN and its organizations.

In a globalized world like the current one, and in which multilateral institutions are so important, being apart from them is a great disadvantage.

So they have created certain special denominations to allow the participation of the DRC in various areas of multilateralism.

Specifically, the name “Chinese Taipei” or “Chinese Taipei”, under which the DRC competes in the Olympics, in addition to serving to provide the DRC with a name acceptable to the PRC in forums or agencies such as the World Trade Organization, for example, where it is also referred to as Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.

In the DRC, where the Taiwanese independence movement (a political movement that defends the elimination of all ties with the PRC to achieve the creation of an independent, sovereign and non-Chinese “Republic of Taiwan”) is gaining more and more strength.

It is claimed the participation of the DRC in the UN under other names and in parallel to the PRC, something similar to the delegation to the UN for South Korea and North Korea.

However, any proposal aimed in this direction has encountered opposition from Beijing and aligned states.

Diplomatic relations

Beyond the UN, at the multilateral level, China's international political status undergoes important changes in bilateral relations with other countries.

Under a “one china” policy there is a mutually exclusive relationship between the two powers; that is to say, Any country that maintains official relations with Beijing cannot have them with Taipei (although this has not prevented many States from maintaining official relations with one State and unofficial relations with another).

This has forced the world powers, beyond their vote in the UN, to decide with which of the two Chinas, the DRC or the PRC, they maintain official diplomatic relations.

Today Only 15 countries diplomatically recognize the Republic of China, while the rest of the States, about 180, diplomatically recognize the People's Republic of China.

This proportion has varied significantly over the years, for example: in 1969, 71 States recognized the DRC and only 48 the PRC and, in 1978, 21 States recognized the DRC and 112 the PRC.

This variation over the years is due to the growth of the PRC's potential on the international stage, which has been reciprocated by a perceived increase in its legitimacy as “true China” due to the DRC's increasingly clear inability to reestablish its sovereignty over the territory of mainland China.

Beyond this, both the DRC and the PRC have always understood the importance of being internationally recognized States, which is why they have made strategic decisions to establish or maintain diplomatic relations with certain States.

The latter has often taken the form of subsidies, aid and low-interest loans for the construction of infrastructure in developing States, often framed in the New Silk Road Initiative, in the case of Beijing.

On the other hand, the DRC, in part, due to its status as lower power has had more problems obtaining diplomatic recognition. As we have said, only 15 States recognize the DPR.

This is why Taipei is forced to maintain close economic, political and cultural relations with those countries that still recognize the DRC.

If Taipei does not constantly remind them how beneficial it is to have it as a strategic ally, these States can easily realize the potential to benefit from the development plans promoted by Beijing around the globe, as well as other benefits of establishing bilateral relations with the PRC .

China's influence on the European Union: The Silk Road as a Trojan Horse

Relations between the two Chinas

After all, despite historical enmities, the DRC and the PRC are two Asian economic powers with strong historical ties barely separated by a strait barely 150 km wide.

So the existence of bilateral relations between both powers is inevitable.

These relations, at the political level, without becoming explicitly hostile, are not good at all, given the “one China” principle that both powers maintain, each claiming to be the legitimate sovereign of the other.

However, Beijing is much more forceful regarding the defense of its sovereignty over the territories controlled by the DRC, as demonstrated by the Anti-secession law of 2005, which forcefully prohibits the formal secession of Taiwan as its own State beyond the PRC or DRC (the latter would disappear), following the wishes of the Taiwanese independence movement.

Despite this, there are some growing ties at the economic level.

Growing Links in the Economic Field

Both countries are part of the World Trade Organization, the Asian Development Bank, APEC and the OECD, among other International Organizations, which promote economic cooperation across the strait that separates them.

The PRC is the DRC's largest trading partner, with a trade network that has quadrupled in the last 20 years.

Both countries allow banks, insurers and other financial services providers to operate in both markets.

With about 900 weekly flights between mainland China and Taiwan show a strong economic connection.

These commercial ties have been able to correspond proportionally with commercial agreements between both governments to end tariffs.

Economic ties go so far that Taipei has been concerned about its trade dependence on Beijing and has actively sought to diversify international trade, e.g. signing a trade agreement with New Zealand in 2013, the first to sign with a developed economy.

There is no room for two Chinas

It is difficult to discern what the future will hold for the two Chinas, but it is true that there are certain historical trends that are difficult to interrupt, and one of these is the passage of time.

And the passage of time and the generational advancement of the DRC is taking its toll on political trends, more specifically on everything related to the Chinese identity of the people.

Although, after the flight of the Kuomintang government to the island of Taiwan centuries ago, there was a certain feeling of belonging to the Chinese nation on the island, as these generations have been replaced by others who had already been born after said exile, this Chinese identity has been weakening.

Right now, surveys reveal that the majority of the young population of the Republic of China do not consider themselves Chinese, but Taiwanese, and increasingly support the Taiwanese independence movement.

Although the triumph of the Taiwanese independence movement has the potential to partially change the conflict with the PRC, given that they would be “the only China”, that would not make Beijing stop claiming the island of Taiwan and the rest of the controlled territories. by the DRC as its territories.

Furthermore, according to the aforementioned Anti-Secession Law, the PRC could respond militarily to any Taiwanese declaration of independence..

Although it is true that it is very likely that Taipei will end up renouncing its claims to sovereignty over mainland China, Beijing, for now, does not seem to be going to renounce its claims to sovereignty over the island of Taiwan, thus making the conflict between THE China still sees no end on the horizon.