A controversial topic..

But will China one day unite with Taiwan peacefully (instead of through war and military power), maybe many decades later?

At that time, there may be a change in the Chinese Communist government, perhaps.

Will that happen?

the chinese government is only communist by name, that is how it has been for the past decade or so, especially when the economic reforms started taking off in the 90s...speaking as someone who has visited china recently, i can tell you that the west is blowing a lot of things out of proportion...it took europe 200 years to make a full transition to democracy, and china doesn't want to simply "copy" the western democracy, they want to forge their own path... it's also funny that people seem to have trouble comprehending the fact that human rights and democracy don't necessarily have to come hand in hand

as for taiwan, china will only attack if taiwan officially announces independence, and the u.s. will only intervene if china attacks BEFORE taiwan officially declares independence..that and china has already said that they would allow taiwan to maintain their own provincial government (since taiwan would be a province of china) and to maintain their own provincial army..china just wants that symbolic meaning of the "one china" unity

Taiwan has more to offer China than China has to offer Taiwan --- except one very important thing. Security. If China can convincingly demonstrate that Taiwan won't get raped in the process, Taiwan may very well decide to rejoin the mainland.

What SERIOUSLY arouses my curiosity is this overall Chinese obsession with "unite" topics.
Because I've read them in a few other forums as well, all the authors being Chinese.

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

What SERIOUSLY arouses my curiosity is this overall Chinese obsession with "unite" topics.
Because I've read them in a few other forums as well, all the authors being Chinese.

It's more an international issue rather than merely Chinese. If there's conflict between China and Taiwan, it'll affect the Pacific region and if that spreads, it'll affect the world.

And if war happens, the economy will be affected badly.

I want to know why people believe that China is only interested in using force to reclaim Taiwan? Any country would rather do things diplomaticly than by the use of force.

If the Taiwanese Independence side keep doing stupid things. I don't think China using force won't happen.Maybe a 20 years to 30 later. Taiwan will be conquered by force.

Taiwan were a part of China for thousands years. In 16th to 17th century, The Ming Dynasty of China were destroy by the Manchurian and Manchurian built "Ch'ng" Dynasty in China. There was a faithful officier of the previous Ming Dynasty named Zheng Cheng Gong,revolt and coz dsome trouble to the Ming Dynasty at that time. But too bad,he fail in the end. So he decided to retreat to Taiwan as the revolting base.

In the 19th century. Taiwan was governed by China. But Japanese imperialism won the war of Jia-Wu (Sino-Japan war 19th century). As the result, Taiwan was given to Japanese (The same form as British got the Hong Kong). After WW II, in the result of the International agreement. Taiwan was retruned to China government in 1945-1946,When Guomingdang party was the govenment of the China. But later n the China civil war between Communist and Guomingdang for 4 years. Guomingdang in the end lost the war, and retreat to Taiwan. And that's why now Taiwan remain as a decromatic politic body,which actually came from China(Guomingdang).

2 above occasion shows that taiwan r apart of China. A concept of a country is People,not Politic body only. Most of the Taiwanese came from the South China area -- The Fujien province. Indeed there were aborogins in Taiwan. But today the group who everyday claim to have independence, were those whose Grandpa and grandma came from China Mainland,not aborogins. The Taiwan aborogins never given a good chance to join the politic of Taiwan,but they were alwayz taken as the "shield" to claim the independence for Taiwan.

What SERIOUSLY arouses my curiosity is this overall Chinese obsession with "unite" topics.
Because I've read them in a few other forums as well, all the authors being Chinese.

Before 1978 chinese communist had used "liberate Twiwan" instead of "unite with Taiwan".After 11th chinese communist 4th central committee congress ,chinese begun to use "unite with Taiwan" in documents.

Originally Posted by Ezechiel

Taiwan were a part of China for thousands years.

Untrue. The Qing or Ch'ng Dynaty (whichever you wish to call it) did not exist even one thousand of year ago (so forget about "thousands") They are the first and only Chinese Dynasty to dominate Formosa/Taiwan for any length of time. The Qing dominated lots of things that they had no absolute right to. The PRC seems to use the Qing as the official "That's supposed to be part of China" test, but exactly why is this? Also, interestingly enough, it was a Dutch colony before it was conquered by them. So since it was a Dutch colony first, should the Netherlands be making claims on it now? It was "theirs" first, wasn't it?

Before anybody came and took over, Taiwan had its very own history as its own country.

We know the recent history of Taiwan. What I cannot understand is -- how does "was once part of China" forever doom something to always irrefutably be a part of China. Ireland was once part of the United Kingdom. Are they infringing England, Wales and Scotland's rights by being their own nation now?? Of course not. What is so terribly wrong with a people ... ANY PEOPLE deciding that, "thank you very much, but we'd rather go be our own thing now" especially when they have a considerable history of being their own nation. The People's Republic of China does not control Taiwan. It never has been. There appears to be some disagreement among the people of Taiwan over whether they want to push for independence. The PRC doesn't give a damn what their opinion is. "That's ours and you declare your Independence over you own dead bodies." <--- This is the attitude that scares the crap out of all Taiwanese - including those determined to define themselves as Chinese and not Formosan. This is a very large barrier to peaceful reunification -- Can Taiwan trust itself to the tender mercies of a Chinese government that is ready and willing to slaughter them?

According to some sources, the primary component in the Taiwanese ancestry is aboriginal, not Chinese. Other sources say that there is barely any aboriginal blood and that vast majority is Chinese. Difficult to say for certain who has the truth of it. Then again its completely irrelevant. The fact that most of Australia is British does not give Great Britain the absolute right to rule over them. Ethnicity is not the only means of defining Nations.

We've been through this discussion too many times to count. We always come back to the same thing. China has the military force to pummel the crap out of Taiwan if they declare independence, and has guaranteed that they will. Taiwan declaring indelpendence would be a stupid move not because of some divine right of ownership, but because China has the brute military force in the situation, so they get to make the rules. Would any such threat of force exist if Taiwan and China had exactly equal military, population etc? No it almost definietly would not.

Incidentally, since the Qing Dynasty owned it, when is China planning to "liberate" Mongolia?

Taiwain being a "part" of China for thousands of years is pure fantasy. It was charted by China yes, but it was largely ignored. Which is why Chiang Kai Shek found it a good place to run to when he obviously lost against Mao.