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Can there ever really be “one China?” - Video học tiếng Anh
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Can there ever really be “one China?”
Can there ever really be “one China?”
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0:00
Take a look at Taiwan's passport covers
0:01
through the years. You'll notice that in
0:03
the first few iterations, the word
0:05
Taiwan never actually appears on the
0:07
passport cover. In fact, the word Taiwan
0:10
doesn't even appear until 2003. And
0:13
that's because, well, Taiwan didn't
0:15
always identify itself as Taiwan. It
0:18
originally identified itself as China,
0:19
the Republic of China. But this is also
0:23
China, the People's Republic of China.
0:25
So, when did Taiwan emerge as an
0:27
identity of its own on this passport?
0:30
And if the People's Republic of China is
0:32
insistent on the one China principle, is
0:35
it even possible for Taiwan to maintain
0:37
its autonomy?
0:39
The story of how two China's emerged
0:41
started in 1927 with a bloody civil war
0:44
between two political parties, the
0:46
Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese
0:48
Nationalist Party. This war lasted over
0:51
two decades. By October 1949, the
0:54
Chinese Communist Party claimed victory
0:56
and the nationalists retreated to the
0:58
island of Taiwan, which had previously
1:00
been a Japanese colony, but was handed
1:02
over to China when Japan surrendered at
1:04
the end of World War II.
1:06
>> Beginning in December 1949 on his island
1:09
sanctuary, Jang worked toward the day
1:12
when China could be freed from the
1:14
communist yoke.
1:15
>> From 1949, 1950 onward, you have two
1:19
separate jurisdictions. They both claim
1:21
legitimacy. So they all both claim that
1:24
they are representative of China.
1:26
>> On the mainland, the communists declared
1:28
their country the people's republic of
1:29
China. On Taiwan, the nationalists kept
1:32
the name the Republic of China.
1:34
>> There are multiple claims of what China
1:36
is, what it ought to be. Um, and it's
1:39
confused by the fact that they use the
1:41
same term.
1:42
>> And you can see that reflected in the
1:44
design of the first passport from Taiwan
1:46
in 1949. The cover only says passport of
1:49
the Republic of China with no mention of
1:51
Taiwan. To add some more complexity to
1:53
the question of who is the real China,
1:56
the ROC, not the PRC, got a seat as the
1:59
founding member of the United Nations in
2:01
1945 before the Chinese Civil War had
2:04
even ended. This seat went to Chiang
2:06
Kai-Shek, the then leader of the ROC,
2:09
because he was the one who brought his
2:11
army onto the side of the Allies against
2:13
Japan during World War II. Because the
2:16
ROC was one of the allies, it had an
2:19
important role in establishing uh the
2:22
the the United Nations, the basic
2:24
institutions and the UN charter.
2:26
>> From 1945 to 1971, the United Nations
2:30
recognized the Republic of China on
2:31
Taiwan as the real China. But come the
2:34
Cold War, the concept of China shifts.
2:37
Essentially the Soviets um and the PRC
2:40
have a falling out and the US is looking
2:43
for an opportunity to uh you know put
2:46
the Soviets in a tougher position. So
2:48
one of the things that they decide to do
2:50
is to move closer uh to to the PRC
2:53
>> and how the US triangulated itself
2:55
between the PRC and the ROC became more
2:58
and more significant. Henry Kissinger,
3:00
then the US National Security Adviser,
3:02
secretly visited China in 1971.
3:05
Following his trip, President Nixon
3:07
became the first US president to
3:09
publicly visit communist China after two
3:11
decades of diplomatic isolation. During
3:14
this time, the UN passed resolution 2758
3:17
where it recognized the PRC as the only
3:20
legitimate representative of China. And
3:23
with that, the ROC lost its seat at the
3:25
UN.
3:25
>> Beijing and Washington, they get closer
3:27
because they both see a common enemy in
3:30
the Soviet Union. the decision to move
3:32
closer to the US remained actually quite
3:35
contested within the PRC. Um uh the US
3:38
was seen as this sort of the leader of
3:40
this sort of imperialist capitalist
3:42
world. So it takes Mao dying in 1976 and
3:46
also Deniaing coming to power and being
3:48
able to sideline his arrivals for the US
3:52
and the PRC to move closer together.
3:54
>> A new beginning in US China relations. 3
3:59
years after Mao's death, the US
4:00
formalized its own recognition of
4:02
Beijing as the sole government in China.
4:05
This birth, America's version of the one
4:07
China policy.
4:08
>> The government of the United States of
4:09
America acknowledges the Chinese
4:11
position that there is but one China and
4:15
Taiwan is part of China.
4:17
>> All right, I know it looks like it's
4:18
just me out here, but producing stories
4:20
like this takes a whole team. Reporters,
4:22
editors, fact checkers, animators,
4:24
camera people you don't even see right
4:25
now. So much more. all working together
4:28
to make journalism that's accurate,
4:29
nuanced, and hopefully fun to watch. And
4:32
if highquality independent journalism is
4:34
important to you, then you would love
4:35
our Vox community on Patreon. For a few
4:38
dollars a month, you can get access to
4:40
exclusive video reporting, new shows
4:42
we're developing, and a chance to chat
4:43
directly with our journalists like me.
4:46
And if you're not able to support
4:47
financially right now, which is totally
4:49
understandable, you can follow us on
4:51
Patreon for free to stay connected and
4:53
see what we're working on next. And now,
4:55
let's get back to the video. Come the
4:56
80s and 90s, the concept of China
4:58
evolved again as a new Taiwanese
5:00
identity began to emerge, especially as
5:03
our government started to democratize.
5:05
>> Taiwan was under martial law for 38
5:08
years. And so by the early 1990s, Taiwan
5:12
had moved from what was effectively a
5:15
police state to uh a full-fledged
5:18
democracy.
5:19
>> A pivotal moment took place in 1995. The
5:21
president of Taiwan, Lee Tang Quay, who
5:23
had been appointed by his predecessor,
5:25
so not yet democratically elected, spoke
5:28
at his alma mater, Cornell University.
5:30
>> His visit to the United States is the
5:32
first by a Taiwan leader since the
5:35
United States severed diplomatic
5:36
relations with that country in 1979.
5:39
>> The administration of then US President
5:41
Bill Clinton initially blocked Lee's
5:43
visa.
5:44
>> At that point in time, the US, you know,
5:46
was trying to still improve its ties
5:49
with the PRC. It was very wary of uh a
5:53
potential upsetting of the uh
5:55
relationship.
5:56
>> But the Republican le Senate pushed for
5:58
his visit to be approved.
5:59
>> They went around President Clinton who
6:02
was in office at that time and approved
6:04
a unofficial visit by Lee Huay to
6:06
Cornell University.
6:08
>> Today
6:10
the institutions of democracy
6:13
are in place in the Republic of China.
6:17
Human rights are respected and protected
6:21
to a very high degree. Democracy is
6:26
thriving in my country.
6:28
>> And uh that visit was seen as important
6:32
because it raised the visibility of uh
6:35
the ROC as Taiwan. So people in Taiwan
6:39
uh saw that they had a degree of
6:41
international recognition that was uh
6:43
wellreceived in the United States. It
6:45
also marked a shift in the way the
6:46
leaders of Taiwan viewed their claim on
6:48
China as one China but open to multiple
6:51
interpretations.
6:53
We in the Republic of China on Taiwan
6:57
have found that peaceful transformation
7:02
must take place gradually and with
7:06
careful planning. Essentially the Taiwan
7:09
side even though they kept the ROC name
7:11
accepted that you know their
7:13
jurisdiction is limited to Taiwan island
7:15
Pong Hu Matu Jingan and other outlying
7:18
islands they essentially accept right
7:20
the PRC as being the government um on on
7:24
the mainland
7:25
>> but Beijing saw Lee's visit as a
7:27
violation of their one China principle
7:29
the one in which reunification was the
7:31
goal and Taiwan was part of the People's
7:33
Republic of China. The PRC became very
7:36
uncomfortable with Lee Dangquay's uh
7:38
increasingly
7:39
pro-Taiwan independence rhetoric. He
7:43
followed Taiwan public opinion which
7:44
generally was not supportive of eventual
7:47
unification with the PRC.
7:49
>> The PRC uh clearly didn't like that very
7:52
much. Uh and so what they decided to do
7:54
was to launch a series of uh missile
7:56
exercises in 95 and 96. Now, uh, some of
8:00
that was to show opposition, but a lot
8:02
of it was also to, uh, scare Taiwanese
8:05
voters from supporting Leon Huay. But
8:07
the missile exercises had the opposite
8:10
effect.
8:10
>> The spectre of China launching missiles
8:14
uh, near Taiwan's major ports led to a
8:17
sort of rally around the flag effect
8:19
where Lee Quay became more popular than
8:22
he was before. And in 1996, of course,
8:24
there was the first direct presidential
8:26
election. Leon Huay ran in and won that
8:29
election.
8:30
>> From there, Taiwan's position veered
8:31
further from the one China that the PRC
8:34
envisioned. By 2000, the people of
8:36
Taiwan elected Chunian, their first
8:39
president from the Democratic
8:40
Progressive Party, a new party whose
8:42
charter included aspirations for
8:44
independence.
8:45
>> It's not necessarily a uh you know
8:49
declaration of independence, but it was
8:51
it was there because of the sort of
8:53
coalition that they had to build. This
8:55
marked a significant change since Lee's
8:57
Cornell speech that still identified his
8:59
country as the Republic of China on
9:01
Taiwan.
9:02
>> We've now got a Taiwan today where the
9:04
large majority of people in Taiwan
9:06
identify as just Taiwanese. And so that
9:09
then shifts the incentives of uh
9:12
politicians running for elected office.
9:15
>> In 2002, President Chen pushed forward
9:17
legislation to add the English word
9:19
Taiwan to their passport. By 2003, the
9:22
first passports with Taiwan on the cover
9:24
were issued. Since then, the word Taiwan
9:27
has remained on the Republic of China
9:28
passport, and the text itself has gotten
9:30
larger, a reflection of how design
9:33
mirrors identity.
9:34
>> And there's a a pragmatic reason for
9:36
this as well. It clarified that this was
9:38
not the People's Republic of China. And
9:40
as a a practical matter, uh the Taiwan
9:44
ROC passport today is actually
9:47
relatively powerful. But as the word
9:49
Taiwan became more prominent alongside
9:51
Taiwanese identity, so has Beijing's
9:54
calls for nationalism and its one China
9:56
reunification goals.
9:58
>> What happens is uh the PRC it becomes
10:01
the world's second largest economy. Uh
10:03
it has a lot more capabilities uh that
10:05
it can bring to bear. So it really wants
10:07
to further isolate Taiwan and bring it
10:09
under its fold if possible. And so it
10:12
starts um trying to in be more insistent
10:15
on uh its one China principle. So many
10:17
other countries which could safely
10:19
ignore Chinese objections uh 25 or 30
10:23
years ago are now in a much more
10:25
vulnerable position. Uh the PRC has much
10:28
more leverage economically over a lot of
10:30
countries.
10:31
>> As recently as May 2026, China removed
10:34
tariffs on all African nations except
10:36
for one, Esatini, a country that still
10:38
has diplomatic ties with Taiwan. As for
10:41
the US, one of the largest trading
10:43
partners of the PRC,
10:45
>> President Xi stressed to President Trump
10:47
that the Taiwan question is the most
10:49
important issue in China US relations.
10:51
Talk to me about that moment when that
10:53
>> Well, they certainly feel that way and
10:54
and they always raise that issue and we
10:56
understand they raise that issue. From
10:58
our perspective, any forced change in
11:00
the status quo and the situation that's
11:01
there now would be bad for both
11:02
countries.
11:03
>> They do see value in the continued um
11:08
you know uh self-governance of Taiwan.
11:10
uh although they you know they are
11:13
reluctant to do anything about uh Taiwan
11:15
independence because they know that
11:16
that's uh provocative.
11:17
>> Though Taiwan does have its own economic
11:19
bargaining chip, it's home to the
11:21
company TSMC which manufactured over 90%
11:25
of the world's semiconductor chips in
11:27
2024.
11:28
>> So Taiwan, in other words, is
11:31
economically
11:33
just as important to the United States
11:35
as the economic relationship with the
11:37
PRC. Despite the US's reluctance to
11:39
recognize Taiwan as its own country, it
11:42
still hedges defensively against Beijing
11:44
in the Asia-Pacific region. And the US
11:46
remains Taiwan's biggest weapons dealer,
11:49
supplying more than 70% of its
11:51
conventional arms imports. But the
11:52
people caught in the middle of this
11:54
geopolitical crossfire are the residents
11:56
of Taiwan itself, especially those who
11:58
were born and raised there and have no
12:00
connection to the revolutionary past of
12:02
the Chinese civil war. they uh felt that
12:05
the their futures were just given away
12:07
uh without their consent.
12:09
>> The PRC is not a democracy. There's no
12:12
signs that it's going to become a
12:13
democracy anytime soon. The idea of an
12:16
independent Taiwan is still anathema to
12:18
the CCP in Beijing and uh is probably a
12:23
cause for war.
12:24
>> The majority of people in Taiwan just
12:25
want the status quo. they are willing to
12:28
live with this sort of um very vague
12:31
international status that they have
12:32
because they don't essentially don't
12:33
want war. Um even though they don't also
12:35
don't want uh PRC or CCP control over
12:38
them. Now this gets us back to the
12:40
question of what is China? Should it be
12:42
uh some political entity or can it be
12:44
something that's more vague? Today um as
12:47
these claims about unity and control
12:48
become more important, that vagueness uh
12:51
becomes more challenging. So, as the
12:53
People's Republic of China becomes more
12:55
powerful, how it enforces its version of
12:57
the one China principle and where the US
13:00
chooses to stand will have major impacts
13:02
on global alliances, especially for
13:05
Taiwan.
