Taiwanese students from the University demonstrated on the Bryan Center walkway Tuesday afternoon to join a nationwide political protest decrying a meeting between President Bill Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin in New York.
Three students criticized China's foreign policy by adorning mock gags, handcuffs and bandages while displaying a succession of placards that read: "Tibet 1959," "Hong Kong 1997" and "Taiwan?" The protesters, about 12 in all, also disseminated literature and solicited passing students for a petition drive.
"I have my own dignity," said protest organizer Peter Huang, a second-year graduate student in the School of the Environment. "I don't want the Chinese people to tell me what to think. That's why it is time to stand up and speak up."
For some Taiwanese students, Tuesday's meeting in New York affirms grave doubts regarding the United States' recent handling of Chinese-Taiwanese relations. Nationwide, similar protests were undertaken on 28 different campuses, Huang said.
In recent months, the United States has sent a mixed signal to Taiwan by granting its president a temporary visa, despite an understanding between the U.S. and China that forbids such actions. Also, House Speaker Newt Gingrich surprised foreign-policy makers when he suggested granting Taiwan official recognition. He later retreated from those remarks.
"We are not against the Chinese people. We just want our voice to be heard," said third-year graduate student Ya-Chung Chuang. "I hope that all the mainland Chinese people can understand."
Chuang previously served as the coordinator of the Taiwan Study Group, which took charge of Tuesday's event. The group is a subset of the Chinese Student Association, which Huang said consists primarily of Taiwanese students.
John Shen, a third-year graduate student in sociology, served last year as president of the Chinese Scholar and Student Association, a similar organization, consisting mostly of students from mainland China. Shen recognized the implicit problems with Taiwanese independence. On the one hand, he said, the Taiwanese should enjoy the right of self-determination. He said, however, that it was unwise for the nation to seek independence so actively.
"I think most mainland Chinese people would say don't worry about it. We won't attack Taiwan. Just relax," Shen said.
The political rift between the Chinese mainland and the island republic traces its history back to a civil war in the 1930s and '40s. Millions of rural peasants and urban laborers joined the Chinese Communist Party in driving out the ruling party, the Kuomintang, which retreated to the small island of Taiwan.
The exiled government still claims legitimate rule of China, a belief passionately decried by leaders in mainland China. Both claim nearly identical names: Taiwan officially calls itself the Republic of China while the mainland refers to itself as the People's Republic of China.
Tuesday's decision in New York touches upon a hot-button political issue in Asia, but owes its origin mostly to a little-known 1972 agreement between the United States and the PRC. Then President Richard Nixon engineered a tenuous agreement reestablishing diplomatic relations between the United States and the PRC.
The key, controversial provision of the arrangement, known as the "One China" policy, effectively prevents the United States from officially recognizing the small, island-based ROC. Nevertheless, America still maintains informal commercial, political and even defensive ties with Taiwan, often infuriating the Beijing leadership.
"The U.S. is trapped by a fiction that we were forced to swallow in the early '70s. Both countries [PRC and ROC] maintain the fiction that there is only one China," said Peter Feaver, assistant professor of political science. "This is the danger of basing a policy on a fiction, because while it might work in the short term, in the long term, it's not viable."
The atmosphere Tuesday was marked, however, by what appears to be a possible turning point in the history of the ROC. During recent months, Taiwan has attempted to move closer to full international recognition in many ways.
For example, Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui offered $1 billion to a reluctant United Nations last summer in exchange for admission to the world body. Taiwan is also making progress to join the World Trade Organization, to which the PRC has been denied admission.
The tough separatist movement emerging from within the ROC also takes place amidst the backdrop of its first-ever direct presidential election. Its domestic politics, some analysts have said, is driving the ROC leaders to make even more daring statements in the face of mainland threats.
"It's true that the current Taiwanese president has gained an electoral advantage by appealing to Taiwanese nationalism, but it is a dangerous game. If he goes too far and provokes a violent response with China, that could in turn provoke a backlash in Taiwan," Feaver said.
The PRC countered recent actions by Taiwan, including a daring summer visit to the United States by President Teng-hui, with its own veiled threat of invasion. The PRC conducted several missile tests off the coast of Taiwan, sparking widespread fear and anger in the ROC.
"I'm Taiwanese, my father is Taiwanese... I wouldn't want to see China militarily invade Taiwan, and hurt my family," Huang said.
Other foreign-policy commentators noted the scheduled shipment of F-16 fighters from the United States to Taiwan due next year. The new aircraft should eliminate the country's military disadvantage with the PRC, granting Taiwan's political leaders with the military muscle to back up their tough talk.
"It's time for us to speak up," Huang said.
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