The Identity of Taiwan's Younger Generation and Their Sentiment toward Mainland China

The Identity of Taiwan's Younger Generation and Their Sentiment toward Mainland China

Course EAS

July 28, 2011

Introduction

“My name is Katharine, and I am Taiwanese.” My roommate introduced herself like this in mandarin Chinese. This is a common example of self-introduction of many young people in Taiwan. In the international society, the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan is not regarded as “a nation” so many nations do not have an official diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. However, it seems like many people in Taiwan still prefer using the term: “Taiwanese” to identify themselves.

Taiwan is a country who is ethnically diversified. It is more common to divide the Taiwanese population into four main groups: “the Austronesians, the island’s original inhabitants, forced to cohabit with the Hakka and Holo peoples arriving fromFujian and Guangdong provinces of China, particularly since the seventeenth century; and fourth, the Mainlanders coming to Taiwan during a final wave of Chinese migration from the mainland during the watershed years 1945-1949” (Corchff, 2002).

Taiwan National identity has been one of the biggest issues not only in Taiwan but also in the international Society especially since Li Deng-hui: the 1^st president who was elected by people in a democratic way in 1996, started to use this “Taiwanese Identity”. In the summer of 1994, Lee publicly referred to his political party as the Taiwan Kuomintang (KMT) - the Taiwan Nationalist Party. Moreover, Lee has publicly stated, “What the Republic of China, Taiwan needs the most is an international affirmation of its sovereignty” (Brown, 2004). He implied that Taiwan’s status as a nation. Time has passed since then, some movements of Taiwanization; such as implementing a Taiwan oriented education system using textbooks named “knowing Taiwan” to teach Taiwan’s history and moral ethic education in Junior high schools, have occurred with political ideology.

“The "one China" policy officially supported by the People's Republic of China, the United States, and other countries asserts that there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of it” (Brown, 2004). “The debate over whether the people of Taiwan are Chinese or independently Taiwanese is, Melissa J. Brown argues, a matter of identity: Han ethnic identity, Chinese national identity, and the relationship of both of these to the new Taiwanese identity forged in the 1990s” (Brown, 2004). Since those days, this “Taiwanese” identity has been a controversial term between the Republic of China, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China who think that this doesn’t go over well with the “One china policy”. This identity issue always comes with the cross-strait relation which is also called as the “Taiwan problem”. On the China side, the problem is about how to bring Taiwan back into the Chinese nation. On the Taiwan side, the problem is about how best to maintain comfortable economic and political trajectories without being swallowed up or bombed by China (Brown, 2004). Thus, identity is political. The cross-strait relation has been changing year after year in recent years, especially under the KMT administration.

I think that it would be valid to know how younger people in Taiwan look at themselves and the relationship between Taiwan and other countries, especially mainland China because their perspectives and attitudes will seriously affect the future relations in Asia and also in the whole world.

The main purpose of this paper is to know how the Taiwan-younger-generation identifies itself and to clarify the relationship between its identification and sentiment toward mainland China. To achieve my objective, I made a questionnaire and conducted a survey targeting the Taiwan-younger-generation and analyzed the results with the comparison of their sense of intimacy and credibility, and images to the following four major foreign countries: the US, Japan, mainland China and Korea.

In this paper, I would like to show the statistical data based on some surveys which were already carried out by NCCU or some institutes. After showing these data, the total results of my own survey will be provided and analyzed. Then I would like to consider the relationship between the Taiwanese identity and the sentiment toward mainland China by only looking at answers of particular respondents who chose “Taiwanese” as their identity. In the last section I would sum up the whole paper and my idea, and also I will give some possible future perspectives.

Taiwanese identity and people’s sentiment toward other countries

In this section, some statistical data about the “Taiwanese identity” and people’s sentiment toward other countries by data collected by some institutes and organizations in Taiwan would be shown.

Figure 1:

Figure 1: Taiwan’s public opinion: (1992~2011.06) Taiwanese/Chinese identity tendency distribution tracking (NCCU, 2011).

According to the survey about the people’s National identity in Taiwan conducted by the NCCU, there are more and more people who think themselves as “Taiwanese” rather than both “Taiwanese” and Chinese, or just Chinese. In 2011, 54.2% of the people answered that they identify themselves as “Taiwanese”. Even though in 2008, the ruling party of ROC, Taiwan changed from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which has always been anti-China, or rather, anti-reunification, to KMT which has been pro-China more than DPP, and the cross-strait relations got closer especially in terms of economy by such as ECFA, interestingly, as the figure 1 shows from 2008 the number of people who categorize themselves as “Taiwanese” increased rapidly.

Figure 2:

Figure 2: If you go travel, which country would you choose? (Interchange Association, Japan (IAJ, 2010).

According to the IAJ, to the question “If you go travel, which country would you choose?” 44% of respondents chose Japan, no change was observed between 2008 and 2009. The number of people who want to go to Europe decreased a little and more people want to go to mainland China in 2009 compared to 2008.

According to the IAJ, to the question of “which one of these countries, do you like the most, except Taiwan?” respondents answered as below (2010).

Figure 3:

Figure 3: Which one of these countries, do you like the most, except Taiwan? (IAJ, 2010).

The answers were divided as such: 52% of them chose Japan, and 8% of them chose the US and 5% of them mainland China. Thus, their sentiment toward Japan is the best in the world.

According to Global Views, to the question about which country do you admire the most out of 166 countries in the world, 47.5% of them chose Japan, second country was the US. Mainland China and Korea ranked next in order (2011). People in Taiwan chose mainland China and Korea as two of the top four countries that they admire the most. The article said that both mainland China and Korea have developed their economy very rapidly and also their direction of the development is accurate enough to lead their nations to develop even more successfully.

Figure 4:

Figure 4: Which country do you think Taiwan should have a closer relationship with in the future? (IAJ, 2010).

Moreover, to the question about “which country do you think Taiwan should have a closer relationship with in the future?” interestingly, 33% of respondents chose mainland China and 31% of them chose Japan (IAJ, 2010). In addition to this, according to the China Internet TV, 67% of people in Taiwan actually think that mainland China is very important for Taiwan (2010).

Observed results throughout the whole questionnaire

In this next section, the results of my survey will be organized and analyzed. Since those statistical data in the previous section was conducted by targeting many different generations, I wanted to focus on opinions of a younger generation in Taiwan. The result of the survey that I conducted myself will be provided. This survey is about the Taiwan-younger-generation’s public sentiment toward mainland China based on their self-identification and a comparison of their sense of affinity, trust and image of the following four major foreign countries: the US, Japan, mainland China and Korea.

A questionnaire was used as a method of this survey. It was sent as a document file via email to people in Taiwan. This survey was conducted from June 14^th to July 1^st in 2011 and targeted younger people: from 16 years old to 30s in Taiwan. As a result, 141 samples were valid in total. The results are shown as below.

Figure 5: Figure 6:

Figure 5: Sex Figure 6: How do you categorize yourself?

As the first graph shows, 36.9% of respondents of the questionnaire were male and 63.1% of them were female. To the question about how the Taiwan-younger-generation categorizes itself, most of the respondents (90.8%) answered that they categorize themselves as “Taiwanese”. This result actually fit my hypotheses of that most of the people would call themselves as “Taiwanese”.

1. Question about whether people in Taiwan feel close to the following countries.

Figure 9: Figure 10:

Figure 7-10: Do you feel close to those four countries: the US, Japan, mainland China and Korea.

To the question about whether people in Taiwan feel close to those four countries: the US, Japan, mainland China, and Korea, it is very obvious that many of the respondents: more than 85% of them feel closer to Japan than the other three countries. On the other hand, even though the physical distance between Taiwan and mainland China is the closest one among those countries, more than 80% of them don’t feel close to mainland China in their heart.

2. Question about the relationship between Taiwan and each country.

Figure 13: Figure 14:

Figure 11-14: Do you think the relationships between Taiwan and each country are good?

As for this question which asked people whether they think the relationship between Taiwan and each country is good or not, by far more than 90% of them answered that Japan and Taiwan has good relationship. Among these countries, only Japan didn’t have the answer: not at all. More than 60% of respondents answered that they think the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan is not good. Even though in the question 1, less than 50% of them felt close to the US, based on the result of this question 2, when it comes to a nation to nation relationship, more than 70% of them feel that the relationship between the US and Taiwan is good.

3.　Question about whether they have been to those countries.

Figure 17: Figure 18:

Figure 15-18: Have you ever been to those countries?

As for the question about whether they have been to those countries, Japan ranked as the number-one answer among these countries. Almost three-fourth of the respondents has been to Japan at least once. Even though in the question 1, more than 80% of them didn’t feel close to mainland China, when it comes to traveling, it still seems like that many people: slightly more than 50% of them have already been to mainland China.

4. Question about how much they want to visit those countries or want to visit there again.

Figure 21: Figure 22:

Figure 19-22: How much you want to visit those countries or want to visit there again?

These are the results of the question about how much they want to visit those countries or want to visit there again. According to the question 4, even though many of the respondents have been to Japan before, almost 90% of them still chose Japan as a country where they would like to visit. Looking at the breakdown of responses in cases of mainland China and Korea, they are quite similar. 30-40% of them want to visit those countries, but on the other hand 40-50% of them feel resistance about visiting there.

5. Question about whether they trust those countries.

Figure 25: Figure 26:

Figure 23-26: Do you trust those countries?

To the question about whether they trust those countries, about 20% of respondents chose the answer: “I don’t know” for the US, Japan and Korea. This question is asking a more political aspect or government to government relationship rather than a person to person one. Looking at the graph of mainland China, it seems like people in Taiwan have a relatively clearer idea whether they can trust mainland China in a political way. Only Japan got more than 50% of respondents who trust Japan, but more than half of the people don’t trust the other two countries

6. Question about which country they think that Taiwan should have closer relationship in the future (They could only choose ONE of them.)　

Figure 27:

Figure 27: Which country do you think Taiwan should have closer relationship in the future?

Japan got the largest portion for this question. The US and mainland China got almost the same results. Only 5.7% of respondents chose Korea for this question. Some respondents wrote comments on this section, which is that if they think about the economic development of Taiwan, then they should better have a good relationship with mainland China. Some of them mentioned the government’s decision in which Universities in Taiwan will start to accept students from mainland China, they said that they expect this policy to become the soft power to make these two countries closer.

7. 　In the last question, respondents wrote three words that they think of when they heard the name of each one of the countries present in the survey. Since there were a lot of different words, some redundant words were picked up and a tendency of images for each country will be shown below.

For the US, many people imagined that it is a free, huge and friendly country. There were some other opinions such as the US is famous for its pop culture, movies, and fast food. There were many positive answers about the US culture or technology. However, when it comes to social or political aspects, many people criticized the US sarcastically saying that they are selfish, liars and always justifying themselves. Actually the negative impression toward the US was slightly more than the positive impression.

As for Japan, most of the people wrote that it is clean, polite, sophisticated, and punctual. Other impressions were such as the Japanese chivalry: Bushido, Sakura, High technology, high quality etc. Even though most of the images toward Japan were relatively positive, but there were still some negative images about Japan. For example, Japanese society is stressful, male-dominated society, clannish spirit, divided principles: tatemae and intentions, narrow-minded, and also earthquake and radioactivity.

When it comes to images of mainland China, the answers made people’s impression toward it very clear and obvious. People in Taiwan have a positive image only about China’s scenery, History and historical sites. Most of the respondents’ images were quite negative. For example, mainland China is danger, impolite, arrogant, dirty, selfish, noisy, unsophisticated country etc. Many people think it’s all controlled by the communist government so people have no freedom, there are so many fake products, and it’s an unequal society. However, there is a worth noting feature on the mainland China’s image. Even though many people wrote bad images about mainland China, still with those images, people wrote that they admire China’s rapid economic development. Even some people said they are scared of China’s economic power.

About Korea, it seems like it is famous for its culture such as Kimchi, K-pop, Korean drama, Korean wave, Korean idols, plastic surgery etc. However, surprisingly except cultural aspect, most of the images toward Korea were quite negative. It is not an exaggeration that images toward Korea were the worst among these four countries. For example, there were answers like Korea is selfish, brazen-faced, aggressive, impolite, arrogant, ethnocentric, foxy, unfair, cowardly, evil, stupid, they will do whatever it takes to win, has strong nationalism, thinks that everything good is from Korea etc. There were one interesting answer that said Korea is slightly similar to Taiwan.

My impression from those images is that people in Taiwan is looking at mainland China and Korea as countries to watch out for. It was interesting to know that even though many respondents don’t have a positive impression toward mainland China, they still admire China in terms of its economic power. Since economic ties between mainland and Taiwan is the key to develop Taiwan’s economy. Therefore, it seems like people in Taiwan cannot ignore mainland China. What surprised me the most from this result is those images toward Korea. There are more and more Korean products and culture coming into Taiwan, but this social phenomenon doesn’t necessary mean people like Korea, the country itself. It seems like people in Taiwan are looking at Korea as a rival in an equal basis in many different fields such as economy and sports match etc.

Relationship between the Taiwanese identity and the sentiment toward mainland China

In this section, the result of my questionnaire will be considered in a greater depth. As the previous section showed, 90.8% of respondents which means 128 people out of 141 answered that they categorize themselves as “Taiwanese”. Therefore, even though the result might be almost the same as above, the relationship between the Taiwanese identity and the sentiment toward mainland China would be observed and analyzed in the following part.

Figure 28: Figure 29:

Figure 28: Do you feel close to mainland China?

Figure 29: Do you think the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan good?

About Figure 28, the result is almost the same as Figure 9. Slightly less people chose the answers: “feel close”. As for Figure 29, a little bit more people answered that they think the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan is good compared to the Figure 13.

Figure 32: Figure 33:

Figure 32: Do you trust mainland China?

Figure 33: Which country do you think Taiwan should have closer relationship in the future?

About Figure 32, this is almost the same as the result as the Figure 25. As for the Figure 33, compared with the Figure 27, there were slightly less people who chose mainland China and slightly more people chose Japan and the US.

Conclusion

Some respondents of my questionnaire wrote their own opinions outside of the multiple choices. When I looked at them, I found out that even though many people chose “Taiwanese” as their identity, their ideas are all different and deep. Some said that their ancestors were from mainland China but young people in Taiwan now are not mainlanders. Some said they don’t have a positive image toward mainland China so they don’t want to be the same as them. It was interesting to know the opinions of people who chose “Taiwanese and Chinese” or “Chinese”. Actually many of them said that ROC Taiwan is the legitimate representative of “China”, therefore they don’t want to give up “China”. They are strongly against the communist government of PRC.

As Melissa J. Brown defined in her book, “A specific identity is formed by individuals who share common social experiences because they are classified as members of a single group Social experience includes political and economic experience. That is, people’s social experience derives from their position with regard to political and economic power.” (Brown, 2004), I can say that the identity is political.

Figure 34:

Figure 34: Evaluation of President Ma’s cross-Strait and foreign policy in the past three years (Global Views Survey Research Center (GVSRC), 2011).

According to the GVSRC, “when it comes to President Ma’s cross-Strait and foreign policy over the past three years, the cross-Strait policy was considered a success by 49.9 percent f the polled, while 32.3 percent said otherwise. 43.5 percent said Ma’s foreign policy was successful but 40.5 percent did not think so. Generally speaking, nearly half of the interviewed thought President Ma did a good job in dealing with cross-Strait relations and gave more positive evaluation on his cross-Strait compared to his foreign policy”(GVSRC, 2011). Thus, even though more and more people are supporting his cross-strait policy, as the Figure 1 showed, there are more and more people who think themselves as “Taiwanese”. The figure 6 also showed that most of the younger people in Taiwan also regard themselves as “Taiwanese”. It was a quite interesting phenomenon that the number of people who categorize themselves as “Taiwanese” increased rapidly since 2008.

To consider this phenomenon, I paid attention to the people’s sentiment toward mainland China. As I already mentioned above, it is obvious that people from Taiwan admire mainland China and most of them know that they should have a closer relationship with mainland China for their economic development even though they don’t have positive feeling toward them. I perceived that this contradiction between the political and economical strategies, and their own feeling made people in Taiwan feel alert about their “identity”. Political or economical ties are good for Taiwan. However, it seems like that the reunification or having “Chinese (in this case, in PRC way)” identity is a whole different story for them.

This Taiwanese identity issue influences not only on cross-strait relations but also on Japan- Taiwan relations directly. As all the data in the previous sections showed, people in Taiwan have a very positive attitude toward Japan. The change in the cross-strait relations will change the relationship between Japan and Taiwan in the future. I personally strongly recommend the Japanese government to take this current situation more seriously and change the too much mainland China oriented diplomatic policy.

Reference

Brown, M. (2004). Is Taiwan Chinese?, Chapter 1: The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities(pp. 1-34). Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: the Regents of the University of California.

Brown, M. (2004). Is Taiwan Chinese?, Chapter 6: Theory and the Politics of Reunification (pp. 211-250). Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: the Regents of the University of California.

Corcuff, S. (2002). Memories of the future, Chapter 8: Taiwan’s “Mainlanders,” New Taiwanese? (pp.163-195). The United States of America: M.E.Sharpe, Inc.

Global Views. (2006). 雜誌大調查 台灣人看世界最愛美國與日. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.gvm.com.tw/Board/content.aspx?go=cover&ser=12189

Global Views Survey Research Center Survey. (May 24, 2011). President Ma Ying-jeou's Performance「馬總統滿意度；2012年總統大選」民調. Retrieved on July 24, 2011, from http://www.gvm.com.tw/gvsrc/20110515S01AP00PR2R.pdf

Interchange Association, Japan (IAJ). (2010).台湾における対日世論調査. Retrieved on July 24, 2011, from http://www.koryu.or.jp/taipei/ez3_contents.nsf/04/52F6843250D2FB0E492576EF00256445/$FILE/detail-japanese.pdf

National Chengchi University (NCCU). (2011). 台灣民眾台灣人／中國人認同趨勢分佈. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://esc.nccu.edu.tw/modules/tinyd2/content/TaiwanChineseID.htm

The China Internet TV(中國網路電視臺). (2010). 民調顯示：67%臺灣民眾認為大陸對臺很重要. Retrieved on July 23, 2011, from http://big5.chinataiwan.org/shp/tjsp/201008/t20100816_1492012.htm

Taiwan’s Anti-Nuclear Politics

Course GLS490 Dr. Kenneth Quinones
Akita International University
July 18, 2011


Taiwan’s Anti-Nuclear Politics

Introduction

Taiwan is a relatively small island which is also called Formosa which means “a beautiful island” in Portuguese. The main island of Taiwan is one-tenth of the size of Japan. There are 23,138,381 people living there (Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan), 2010). The reason why I focus on Taiwan in terms of the nuclear power plants issue is because researching this issue would be valid since it could affect Japan’s future decision about nuclear power.

The entire world was greatly shocked at the huge earthquakes and tsunami on this March and the Fukushima shock: the explosion of the nuclear power plants in Fukushima daiichi added insult to injury. After this disaster, the nuclear power plants became a target of criticism all over the world, and particularly in Taiwan too. The debate heated up even in the political level.

My main objective in this paper is to figure out how the Fukushima shock affected Taiwan’s politics and society and also how is this going to affect Japan’s future in return. In the following sections, I would like to talk about the status quo of the nuclear power plants and the history of anti-nuclear movement in a political level in Taiwan. Some similar characteristics of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants and Japan’s would be introduced in the next paragraph. Then, I will compare the two completely different stances toward the nuclear power plants in Taiwan. Moreover, I would like to look at the public opinion toward this nuclear power issue. In my conclusion I would like to consider about how this Taiwan’s trial and political change could affect Japan in the future.

Nuclear Power Plants in Taiwan

Nuclear power has also been controversial in Taiwan (WSJ). In Taiwan, the electricity is provided by Taiwan Power Company (Taiwan Power Company, 2011). They provide service to 12.58 million customers on the island of Taiwan and the Kinmen and Matsu islets. Taipower has 6 nuclear units installed in 3 stations and 2 units in a new station are under construction. Those four nuclear power plants are usually called as “the first” which is in Chinshan, “the second“ which is in Kuosheng, “the third” which is in Maanshan, and “the fourth” which is in Longmen. Other detailed information of those units is as follows. Also as the map shows, there are three units in the northernmost tip of Taiwan and one unit is in the southernmost tip of it.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Figure 1: Operating Taiwan nuclear reactors (World Nuclear Association, 2010).

Figure 2: Taiwan nuclear reactors under construction.

Figure 3

Figure 3: A map of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants (ICCN, 2011).


The construction of the nuclear power plants in Taiwan has started since the late 1970s. Three of them are now generating electricity and the fourth one, which is under the construction in longmen village new Taipei city, has been made since March in 1999 under the KMT’s administration (Xie, 2003).

However, according to Xie, on March 2000, Chen Shui-bian of DPP who has been taking the position of the Anti-nuclear power plants became the president, and on May of the same year the discussion whether they should stop the construction of the fourth power plant started and on October the construction itself temporary stopped until February in 2001. Even though the administrative court proposed a bill of referendum about the fourth plant, it was strongly opposed in legislative courts by the opposition party, which is mainly KMT. Uphill battle from hostile opposition parties have still continued. Under the DPP’s administration, Taiwan held the “10th No Nuke Asia Forum” in 2002. On July 2003, there was a demonstration to push the referendum about the Longmen nuclear power plant in Taipei (Xie, 2003).

Similarities between Taiwan and Japan

The situation surrounding nuclear power plants in Taiwan bears a resemblance to Japan’s. First, they are similar in their roots of energy resources, dependency on nuclear power plants and also geographic characteristics. Both are importing most of their energy resources. Japan and Taiwan import more than 95% of its energy resources from other countries: 96% (including Uranium) (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, 2007), and 99.3% (Kuomingtang Official Website, 2011) respectively. This data shows that energy resources of these both counties are depending on foreign countries.

Second, Japan depends on nuclear power plants to generate almost 30% of the total electricity and Taiwan’s nuclear power plants generate about 20% of its total electricity (Women in Nuclear Taiwan, 2010). Their dependency rates on nuclear power for their electricity are close. 20% or 30% are relatively a large portion of the total electric generating capacity. Therefore, for both of them, nuclear power is necessary for the stable distribution of electricity and also economic development. This even would be a serious matter of the national security.

However, there is another noteworthy similarity between them, q.e. these two countries are on the same quake zones according to Wall street journal “scores of reactors in quake zones” (The Wall Street Journal, 2011). According to the Wall Street journal, there are “dozens of nuclear reactors operate in earthquake-prone regions around the world. Among them, least 14 are in high-hazard areas.” The map below shows that all the Taiwan’s nuclear power plants are on this zone. “Most of those plants are in just two places: Japan and Taiwan, both islands with limited natural resources that have chosen the risks of nuclear calamity over complete dependence on foreign sources of energy.” (The Wall Street Journal, 2011). Taiwan’s four nuclear power plants are all in this quake zones.

Figure 4

Figure 4: Threat by Land and Sea (The Wall Street Journal, 2011)

Thus, the situation surrounding nuclear power plants in Taiwan and Japan has many similarities. Even though both of the counties are depending on nuclear power plants so far, especially after the Fukushima shock, it is a huge risk for Taiwan to keep having the nuclear power plants. Now, Taiwan is impaled on the horns of a dilemma.

A Role of the Nuclear Power Issue in Taiwan’s Politics

The nuclear power issue in Taiwan had an inauspicious start and still cannot get out of the shape of this confrontation between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Because of the future presidential election in 2012, lately, Taiwan’s politics has been under the big battle.

Now, Taiwan’s government is run by KMT. There are two major political parties in Taiwan, one is KMT and its opposition party is DPP. Usually KMT gets larger support from people who are living in big cities in the north such as Taipei. DPP gets more support from people who are in the south especially in rural area.

There are two candidates for the presidential election now, one is President Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT and the other one is Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP. Tsai is the chairman of DPP. She gained higher approval rating within the DPP (Taipei Times, 2011).

According to the Taipei Times (2011), Tsai Ing-wen was nominated as DPP’s candidate for 2012 presidential election this April. If she is elected as a president next year, she is going to be the first woman president in Taiwan’s history. Tsai has a pragmatic point of view on the cross-strait relations, but has a strict position on Taiwan’s sovereignty status, that means Taiwan is an independent sovereign state and does not belong to Mainland China (Taipei Times, 2011)

Figure 5 Figure 6

Figure 5: KMT nominated Ma Ying-jeou and DPP nominated Tsai Ing-wen for the upcoming presidential election. If you had to vote today, for whom would you vote? (GVSRC, May 9-10, 2011).

Figure 6: Support rate of presidential candidates in 2012 (“Campaign Indicator” with estimated vote shares excluded) (GVSRC, 2011).

As the figure 5 and 6 show, now Tsai have to grapple with the severe present set of conditions.

Figure 7

Figure 7: Survey on President Ma Ying-jeou's Performance (GVSRC, May 24, 2011).

Figure 8
Figure 8: Respondents’ evaluations on possible changes in the cross-Strait relations if either candidate wins the presidency in 2012 (GVSRC, June, 2011).

Based on the figure 7, which is a survey conducted by Global View Survey Research Center (GVSRC) of Taiwan (2011), President Ma is getting more approval from public in terms of the cross-strait relations, which is one of the biggest and longest assignments for Taiwan. Furthermore, as the figure 8 shows, people in Taiwan have obviously a negative image against Tsai when it comes about the cross-Strait relations. According to the Taipei Times translated from liberty times, “She has spearheaded the DPP’s “10-year master plan,” a paper on how the party plans to tackle future challenges, such as an aging population, environmental degradation and the cross-strait policy, which is expected to play a key part in her campaign” (Taipei Times, 2011). Therefore, the environmental degradation, especially the non-nuclear politics will become a political trump card for her.

Comparison of Stances: Tsai and Ma

According to the official website of KMT (2011) and DPP (2011), it's not too much to say that they are taking opposite stances against nuclear power plants, especially on the 4th one. In the following two sections, each party’s stance and its supporters’ opinions will be discussed.

1. Tsai’s Anti-Nuclear campaign and its supporters

On March 25th right after the Fukushima shock, she proposed the campaign pledge: “Nuclear-free nation”: to abolish all the nuclear power plants in Taiwan by 2025. She said that it is impossible to stop all the nuclear power plants right now. The reason why she set 2025 as a goal is because that 2025 is the end year of duration life of the third power plant. That is, if the fourth plant is not built, by 2025 Taiwan’s nuclear power plants would all be expired. Tsai Ing-wen mentioned that risks and disadvantages of having the nuclear power plants are too huge in Taiwan. (The Epoch USA, 2011).

According to Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) (2011), whole Taipei, the capital city would be within a 30-kilometer radius of the plants. The first and the second plants have already included the Taipei city its 30-kilometer radius, but if the fourth plant is completed and starts to be used, the whole northern part of Taiwan would be in danger if they exploded. The establishment of the fourth nuclear power plant means that 6,000,000 people in the northern part of Taiwan would be included within 30km of the main influential areas.

Figure 9
Figure 9: Whole Taipei would be within a 30-kilometer radius of the plants. (TEPU, 2011).

In her blog, Tsai Ing-wen insisted that the government and also people of course should try to save the energy in daily life. She also said that during this period Taiwan can find a lot of alternative energy, and also that the people in Taiwan have to change our industrial structure, so that industry can be compatible with the environment. At the same time, they should get out from the high-energy and high water consuming life style and then turn it into the industrial structure with high knowledge, high technology and high humanities. (Tsai, 2011).

The 2025 nuclear-free program of Taiwan is a complete set of idea, they are also planning that in 2025, Taiwan will be able to secede from the dependence on nuclear energy, to change the industrial structure and way of life can change, even to be able to find more alternative solutions to produce energy which are more efficient and clean (Democratic Progressive Party Official Website, 2011).

Moreover, Tsai mentioned that there is a written policy which tells that Taiwan is going to be a “Nuclear-free nation” gradually in the environmental fundamental law which was enacted in 2002. The storage of the electricity of last year achieved 23% already. The necessary electricity storage is only 15% (Tsai, 2011). Even if all the nuclear power plants were stopped, there would still be 10% of storage. Thus, what they have to do is to think about how to fill in this about 5% gaps. Some scholars such as Professor Shi Xin-min in the department of Chemical and Materials Engineering in National Taiwan University also expressed the same point of view (Liberty Times, March 25, 2011).

Tsai’s plan on how to replace nuclear power plants is as follows (Tsai, 2011). There are some methods that Tsai offered to tackle this assignment.

a. To improve the renewable energy resources: According to the governmental rule, it should be increased by 6.5% by 2025.
b. To improve the efficiency of the thermal electric power generation. By investing money into the thermal electric power generation, it is possible to increase 5.8% of the total electricity generated. By doing this, it would also cut the CO2 emission.
c. To build new natural gas electric power generators in priority rather than building the fourth nuclear power plant. By using the two previous methods, the electricity is already increased by more than 10%. If more electricity is needed, building new natural gas electric power generators would be cleaner and quicker.

Ong Jin-zhu of DPP said that Taiwan’s renewable energy equipment already can produce 6% of whole electricity. He said that it’s possible to replace the nuclear power by renewable energy and natural gas generators (Liberty Times, March 22, 2011). Against KMT and Taipower’s opinions that renewable energy is expensive, he insisted that if the same size of disaster as Japan happened in Taiwan, the prime cost would be higher.

Asian Week criticized that Taipower is not doing well and it is hard to trust them (2011). They said that the fourth plant has many problems. For example, since under the Chen’s administration the construction was stopped and postponed, the materials such as steel were eroded. They had some serious failures on the first generator’s design in the fourth plant, what they have done to fix it was to take some parts away from the second generator and put them in the first one. Tsai Ing-wen and her supporters mentioned as above and emphasized how it is risky to keep having the nuclear power plants in Taiwan.

2. Ma Ying-jeou’s stance and anti-Tsai’s pinion

Against Tsai’s campaign pledge, Ma Ying-jeou, an active president and chairman of KMT and other supporters such as officers of Taipower and administration of Ministry of Economic Affairs have been making strong appeals to the public talking about risks and disadvantages of not having the nuclear power plants in Taiwan. They are mainly emphasizing the economical disadvantage such as the fact that Taiwan. products might lose its competitiveness if they stop using the nuclear power plants.

Ma said that “I love Taiwan, I want Nuclear power plant safety, no safety no Taiwan.” (Kuomingtang Official Website, 2011). His stance toward the nuclear power plants is very clear. He thinks that it would be better for Taiwan’s economical development to keep building the fourth plant and try to improve the security against the possibility of natural disasters (World Nuclear Association, 2010). According to the World Nuclear Association, “Nuclear power is considerably cheaper than alternatives.” (2010). Lin Sheng-zhong, a vice-minister of administration of Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. also said that the alternatives’ prime cost is too high (Liberty times, March 22, 2011). Also, Ma emphasized that 99.3% of Taiwan’s energy resources are imported (Kuomingtang Official Website, 2011). Therefore, Nuclear power plants are important for Taiwan in terms of the national security. Nuclear power plants will provide stable and cheaper energy to the people in Taiwan.

Chen Gui-ming, the CEO of Taipower emphasized that the fourth plant has no problem so far (Liberty Times, March 22, 2011). Huang Xian-zhang, the Vice president of Taipower said that stopping the fourth plant means losing 260billion NT dollars (Liberty Times, March 26, 2011), which is almost 9 billion US dollars. If they didn’t continue to use the nuclear power plants in Taiwan, people will suffer from a lack of electricity within 8 years. Moreover, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. said that by abolishing the nuclear power plants, CO2 emission will be higher. (Liberty Times, March 26, 2011).

Shutting down all the nuclear power plant gives a huge negative impact on industries. Chen Zhao-yi, State-operated meeting vice-committee chairman said that almost 65% of electricity would be insufficient. There would be no way to make up for the lack of electricity without nuclear power plants. (Liberty Times, March 22, 2011). Thus, Ma Ying-jeou and nuclear power supporters are expressing strong concern mainly about negative impact on economy.

Public Reactions

What about the public opinion toward this issue then? According to TVBS TV Network, Poll Center, 60% of people in Taiwan expect the “Nuclear-free nation” (2011). However, as the figure 10 shows, 52% of people are not supporting the idea of “stopping the fourth plant”. 29% said that they highly support Tsai’s idea (TVBS TV Network, Poll Center, 2011). The reason why 52% of people said they don't support Tsai’s idea is because they worry about the possible negative impact on the development of Taiwan economy.

Figure 10

Figure 10: Do you agree with the Tsai’s idea of “stopping the fourth plant”? (TVBS TV Network, Poll Center, 2011).

Figure 11

Figure 11: If the electricity fee got more than 1.5 higher than now, do you agree or not? (TVBS TV Network, Poll Center, 2011).

For the question “if the electricity fee got more than 1.5 higher than now, do you agree or not?” 51% people said agree and 38% said disagree.

Figure 12

Figure 12: Concerning some impacts on economy, do you still agree with the Tsai’s idea of “stopping the fourth plant”? (TVBS TV Network, Poll Center, 2011).

However, interestingly if there would be a negative influence on economy, then 50% of people would not agree with the idea of stopping all the nuclear power plant and 38% said agree.

Figure 13
Figure 13: Which one do you believe: Taipower or Scholars? (TVBS TV Network, Poll Center, 2011).

46% of the people believe Taipower’s allegation that electricity wouldn't be enough a few years later if all the nuclear power plants were abolished, on the other hand, 43% believe the scholars’ opinion that even if they closed all the nuclear power plants, Taiwan still have enough electricity storage.

Figure 14
Figure 14: Is Tsai’s Anti-nuclear campaign clear enough for you? (TVBS TV Network, Poll Center, 2011).

71% of people answered that Tsai’s campaign is not clear enough and 26% said that it is very clear. This data shows that it is difficult for Tsai to get more support from the public due to the lack of understanding. As the TVBS TV Network, Poll Center’s survey data shows that main concern of the public is also the economic disadvantage. Even though Tsai offered plans to deal with the lack of electricity, it seems that her campaign is still not clear enough for ordinary people in Taiwan.

Conclusion

There have been many anti-nuclear movements in Taiwan for a long time, but especially after the Fukushima shock, this nuclear power issue became one of the main concerns for people in Taiwan followed after the cross-strait relations. Through this research I found that this issue is used as a political strategy for the presidential election by the two parties. It is obvious that all the information is controlled by them. Therefore, even though those two parties’ opinions are contradictory, it will be hard for ordinary people to decide which one is right and which one is wrong. It is impossible to abolish all the nuclear power plants right now in Taiwan. The future direction of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants is heavily depending on the two major political parties. The presidential election in 2012 would especially offer a new direction in this issue.

Since there were too much information and they are complicated, I will not dare to give any personal visions or anticipations about the presidential election. However, by observing the anti-Tsai’s opinions, it seems like their point of the argument is always linked to economical disadvantages. Now, a large number of people want a “Nuclear free nation” in Taiwan however many of them cannot support Tsai’s campaign because they are concerned about the influence on economy. The anti-Tsai’s opinions are sharply pointing out their concern. Therefore, if Tsai could explain about this aspect more clearly and communicate with the public sufficiently, her anti-nuclear campaign will be the political bargaining chip for Tsai to win the presidential election in 2012.

Now, the world is more and more swayed to no-nuke movement. After the Fukushima shock, Taiwan’s anti-nuclear movement became the one in political level. If Tsai won in the presidential election next year and implements the anti-nuclear policy, Japan will be affected by this movement too. If Taiwan which has many similarities with Japan took a step ahead to the “Nuclear-free nation”, this would be a billow to push the Japanese society and government toward the same direction. The chain effect of Fukushima shock will be settled soon in the future.




References

Asian Week. (April 3, 2011). Nuclear sticks like a bur and Taiwan doesn't know which way to turn. [Taiwan xingge zhijin henneg shiluan nanqi]. Retrieved July 3, 2011, from http://www.peopo.org/rousseau/post/79150

Democratic Progressive Party Official Website. (2011). Tsai Ying-wen: Win power in 2012, show Taiwan the direction toward the Nuclear-free nation by 2025. [Tsai Ying-wen 2012 Chongfan zhizheng, rang Taiwan zou xiang 2025 Feihejiayuan]. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from http://www.dpp.org.tw/news_content.php?sn=4944

Global Views Survey Research Center. (2011). Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://www.gvm.com.tw/gvsrc/eng/index.asp

Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan). (2010). Leaflet of ROC.
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ICCN. (2011). Drawing sheets of Taiwan’s nuclear power. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from http://www.iccnp.com/data3.html

Kuomingtang Official Website. (2011). Chairman Ma：”I love Taiwan, I want Nuclear power plant safety, no safety no Taiwan.” [Ma Zhuxi “Wo ai Taiwan, Wo yao hean, meiyou hean, meiyou Taiwan”] Retrieved July 7, 2011, from
http://www.kmt.org.tw/hc.aspx?id=32&aid=5893

Liberty Times. (March 22, 2011). Is it possible to make Taiwan in to nuclear-free nation? [ Feihejiayuan keneng ma? ]Retrieved July 3, 2011, from
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Liberty Times. (March 25, 2011). Lawmaker plans freezing nucleus factory budget. [ Liwei ni dongjie hechang yusuan]. Retrieved July 3, 2011, from
http://www.peopo.org/rousseau/post/79150

Liberty Times. (March 26, 2011). By abolishing nuclear power plants, Taipower has to charge the electricity fee about 1.5 times than it used to be. [Feihedian Taidian: Meidu dianfei 2.62yuan bian4yuan]. Retrieved July 3, 2011, from
http://www.peopo.org/rousseau/post/79150
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. (2007). Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) broacher: the situation of Japan’s energy. [Nihon no enerugi jijou]. Retrieved July 4, 2011, from http://www.enecho.meti.go.jp/topics/energy-in-japan/energy2008html/japan/index.htm

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from http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/print/2011/04/28/2003501865

Taiwan Power Company. (2011). Household electricity consumption guide. Retrieved July 18, 2011, from http://www.taipower.com.tw/indexE.htm

Taiwan Environmental Protection Union. (2011). Don’t let Taiwan become like Fukushima-611 whole Taiwan Anti-nuclear movement. [Mo rangjiayuanbianfudao 611 quantai fanhe xingdong]. Retrieved June 28, 2011, from www.tepu.org.tw

The Wall Street Journal. (March 19, 2011). Scores of Reactors in Quake Zones: Japan, Taiwan Account for Most Sites in High-Activity Areas; 'Large Margins of Safety' Factored In at U.S. Plants. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703512404576208872161503008.html

The Epoch USA. (March 25, 2011). Tsai Ying-wen: “Anti-nuclear power” It is necessary to abolish the fourth plant. [Tsai Ying-wen ”Feihe” feifeihesi]. Retrieved July 12, 2011, from　http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/11/3/25/n3209083.htm

Tsai Ying-wen’s blog. (March 28, 2011 ). 13-years-effort, to get rid of the fear of nuclear disaster in future Taiwan-Nuclear-free nation should be implemented. [Shisan niande nuli, rang xiayidai mianyu hezaide kongju- feihejiayuan xuyao shijian] .Retrieved July 6, 2011, from
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TVBS TV Network, Poll Center (April 8, 2011). The opinion poll about the debate of nuclear power plants. [Heneng fadian zhengyi mindiao]. Retrieved July 13, 2011, from http://www.tvbs.com.tw/news/news_poll.asp?p=1&k=0

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Xie, M. (2003). Establishment of the fourth nuclear power plant in Taiwan and its relationship with Japan. [Taiwan daiyon genshiryoku hatudensho no kennsetsuto Nihonntoo kakawar]. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from
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Japan-Taiwan Relations: Territorial Dispute in Senkaku Islands/Diaoyutai

Japan-Taiwan Relations: Territorial Dispute in Senkaku Islands/Diaoyutai

July 22, 2011

Introduction

My personal impression on the relationship between Japan and Taiwan is quite good but quite unfair. The human interaction between Taiwan and Japan is stably active every year as you can see in the Figure 1. Taiwanese people are really nice to Japanese people. For further understanding of Taiwan, I would like to focus on the Japan-Taiwan relations in terms of the fight over the ownership of Senkaku islands/ Diaoyutai. Even though on September in 2010, there was a huge conflict between Japan and mainland China, where a fishing ship of mainland China hit the ships of Japan Coast Guard, I am not going to talk about this incident in this paper.

Figure 1

Figure 1: transitional change of human interaction. The number of Japanese people who have visited Taiwan and Taiwanese people who have visited Japan (Interchange Association, Japan (IAJ), 2011).

A recent Incident near Senkaku

On June 29, an incident happened near the Senkaku islands (Searchina, 2011). According to Asahi Shinbun, in the morning of June 29^th, two Taiwanese activists of the ROC Association of Protect Diaoyutai(中華保釣協會)who have been claiming Taiwan’s sovereignty over Senkaku islands, rode on a fishing ship ”Dafa 268” and came really close to the islands. Japan Coast Guard found the ship and gave them a warning. After that, the ship returned its way. There were no troubles at that time. Yet, this created tension between Japan and Taiwan (The Asahi Shinbun Company, June 29, 2011).

　 2011 is the 40^th year of Chinese people’s protest movements over the Senkaku issue. Therefore, it is an important milestone in their activities. They once considered Japan’s present situation which was severely damaged by the earthquake in this March, but they changed their mind later on and still camenear Senkaku islands to mount a protest (The Asahi Shinbun Company, June 29, 2011).　

Brief Historical Background of Senkaku

After the First Sino-Japanese War from 1894 to ’95, “the Government of Japan made a Cabinet Decision on January 14^th, 1895 to erect a marker on the Islands to formally incorporate the Senkaku Islands into the territory of Japan (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan” (MOFA of Japan), 2011). In 1969, the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) conducted a survey on the bottom of the ocean and found out that the seabed near the Senkaku Islands were full of resources (All About, March 29, 2003). This was the trigger of the Sovereignty issue over the Senkaku Islands. In 1971, the government of the Republic of China (ROC), which was still a legitimate Chinese government in the international society, officially declared Taiwan’s sovereignty over the Senkaku islands (All About, March 29, 2003).

Stances of Japanese Government and Taiwanese Government

Japanese government’s stance toward this issue is that there is no territorial issue because Senkaku Islands are legitimately included to Japanese territories. Japanese government insists that the US have also mentioned that they returned the Senkaku islands as Japan’s territory when they returned Okinawa (Yahoo Japan Corporation, 2011). This is the Japanese government’s official declaration about the Sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands.

These islands were neither part of Taiwan nor part of the Pescadores Islands which were ceded to Japan from the Qing Dynasty of China in accordance with Article II of the Treaty of Shimonoseki which came into effect in May of 1895.

Accordingly, the Senkaku Islands are not included in the territory which Japan renounced under Article II of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The Senkaku Islands have been placed under the administration of the United States of America as part of the Nansei Shoto Islands, in accordance with Article III of the said treaty, and are included in the area, the administrative rights over which were reverted to Japan in accordance with the Agreement Between Japan and the United States of America Concerning the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands signed on 17 June 1971. The facts outlined herein clearly indicate the status of the Senkaku Islands being part of the territory of Japan. (MOFA of Japan, 2011).

On the other hand, Taiwanese government officially asserted that Senkaku Islands’ territory and sovereignty belong to the Republic of China. Taiwan government rose geographical, terrestrial formation, long-term-use (over 100 years) of the sea area near Senkaku, and historical approach to insist on the sovereignty over Senkaku Islands.

Figure 2

Figure 2: Senkaku Islands are the territory of the Republic of China. Geographically, they are Taiwanese associated islands, and belong to Ilan County (MOFA, Taiwan, 2011).

Conclusion

As the previous information shows, Japan’s position is backed by some international treaties. On the other hand, Taiwan’s position pretty much depends on how they look at the history and their opinions are not legitimate enough based on the international law. Therefore, Taiwan’s opinion is taken as far-fetched story in the international society.

Since mainly three nations: Japan, Taiwan and mainland China are claiming their sovereignty over the Senkaku islands, There are contradictions for Taiwan toward this issue. Because Taiwan is now suffering from the cross-strait relationship with China, Taiwan cannot cooperate with China on this issue, for the reason that Taiwanese sovereignty might be invaded. It seems like Taiwan cannot strongly or violently approach this issue because the relationship with Japan might get worse. Taiwan is economically relying on Japan and not only on China as it was the case decades ago. When I looked at the President’s comments about this issue between Japan, I got an impression that he is relatively rational and calm to talk about it (Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan), Oct 8, 2008). Thus the Senkaku issue is very complicated since it is not only about Japan-Taiwan relationship but also China-Taiwan, Japan-China relationship, and even Japan-US relationship too.

I am not a politically correct person, so I am not really sure about what is right about this issue. However, I personally have a deep emotional attachment to Taiwan and Taiwanese people, so hopefully they can solve this problem in a more peaceful and friendly way in the future.

Reference

Interchange Association, Japan (IAJ). (2011). 日台関係. Retrieved July 15, 2011, from

http://www.koryu.or.jp/ez3_contents.nsf/12/F3CE8A140E14BA4649257737002B2217?OpenDocument

All About. (2003.03.29) 尖閣諸島問題の基礎知 Retrieved July 19, 2011, from

http://focus.allabout.co.jp/gm/gc/293247/?from=dailynews.yahoo.co.jp

Yahoo Japan Corporation. (2011) What the Senkaku issue is. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from

http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/domestic/senkaku/

Ministry of Foreign affairs of Japan. (2011). The Basic View on the Sovereignty over the

Senkaku Islands. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from

http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/senkaku/index.html

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of China (TAIWAN). (2009). Retrieved July 19, 2011, from http://www.mofa.gov.tw/webapp/ct.asp?xItem=40531&ctNode=2038&mp=1

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of China (TAIWAN). (February, 2003).The ROC government reiterates its sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai Islands. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from http://www.mofa.gov.tw/webapp/ct.asp?xItem=7843&ctNode=1903&mp=6

Searchina. (2011). 尖閣で「あわや衝突」、台湾活動家の漁船と日本巡視船が＝中国. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2011&d=0701&f=politics_0701_005.shtml

The Asahi Shinbun Company. (June 29, 2011). 台湾活動家の船、尖閣海域に入る　警告受け引き返す. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from http://www.asahi.com/international/update/0629/TKY201106290602.html

Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan). (Oct 8,2008). 總統接受日本「世界雜誌」專訪, Retrieved July 21, 2011, from

http://www.president.gov.tw/Default.aspx?tabid=131&itemid=14246&rmid=514