Editing Chinese unification (section)

=== Taiwan ===
{{Further|Dutch Formosa|Taiwan under Qing rule|Taiwan under Japanese rule}}
Taiwan has a complicated history of being at least partially occupied and administered by larger powers including the [[Dutch East India Company]], the [[Kingdom of Tungning]] (purporting to be a continuation of the [[Southern Ming]]), the Qing dynasty and the Empire of Japan. Taiwan first came under direct Chinese control when it was invaded by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1683.<ref name="Franklin. 2007">{{Cite book|title=Historical dictionary of Taiwan (Republic of China)|last=Franklin.|first=Copper, John|date=2007|publisher=Scarecrow Press, Inc|isbn=9780810856004|edition=3rd|location=Lanham, Md.|oclc=71288776}}</ref>

The island remained under Qing rule until 1895 when it was ceded to the Empire of Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Following the [[Axis powers]]' defeat in World War II in 1945, the Kuomintang-led Republic of China gained control of Taiwan.<ref name="Franklin. 2007" /> Some Taiwanese resisted ROC rule in the years following World War II. The ROC violently suppressed this resistance which culminated in the [[February 28 Incident]] in 1947.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Memories of the Future: National Identity Issues and the Search for a New Taiwan.|last=Stéphane|first=Corcuff|date=2016|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=9780765607911|oclc=959428520}}</ref> At the de facto end of the Chinese Civil War in 1950, KMT and CCP government faced each other across the Strait, with each aiming for a military takeover of the other.

From 1928 to 1942, the CCP maintained that Taiwan was a separate nation.<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last1=Hsiao |first1=Frank S. T. |last2=Sullivan |first2=Lawrence R. |date=1979 |title=The Chinese Communist Party and the Status of Taiwan, 1928-1943 |journal=[[Pacific Affairs]] |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=446 |doi=10.2307/2757657 |jstor=2757657}}</ref> In a 1937 interview with [[Edgar Snow]], [[Mao Zedong]] stated "we will extend them (the Koreans) our enthusiastic help in their struggle for independence. The same thing applies for Taiwan."<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=van der Wees |first=Gerrit |date=3 May 2022 |title=When the CCP Thought Taiwan Should Be Independent |url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/when-the-ccp-thought-taiwan-should-be-independent/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108053621/https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/when-the-ccp-thought-taiwan-should-be-independent/ |archive-date=8 November 2023 |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=[[The Diplomat (magazine)|The Diplomat]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

The [[Chinese irredentism|irredentist]] narrative emphasizing the importance of a unified [[Greater China]] area, which purportedly include Taiwan, arose in both the Kuomintang and the CCP in the years during and after the civil war. For the PRC, the claim of the Greater China area was part of a nationalist argument for territorial integrity. In the civil war years it set the communist movement apart from the ROC, which had lost [[Manchukuo|Manchuria]], the ancestral homeland of the Qing emperors, to Japan in 1932.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Taiwan and Chinese nationalism : national identity and status in international society|last=W.|first=Hughes, Christopher|date=1997|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780203444191|location=London|oclc=52630115}}</ref>

==== Rise of Tangwai and Taiwanese nationalism ====
From the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1950 until the mid-1970s the concept of unification was not the main subject of discourse between the governments of the PRC and the ROC. The Kuomintang believed that they would, probably with American help, one day retake mainland China, while Mao Zedong's communist regime would collapse in a popular uprising and the Kuomintang forces would be welcomed.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The United States and the Republic of China, 1949–1978: Suspicious Allies|last=Goldstein|first=Steven|publisher=Asia/Pacific Research Center|year=2000|isbn=9780965393591|pages=16–20}}</ref>

By the 1970s, the Kuomintang's authoritarian military dictatorship in Taiwan, led by the [[Chiang family]] was becoming increasingly untenable due to the popularity of the [[Tangwai movement]] and Taiwanese nationalism. In 1970, then-Vice Premier, [[Chiang Ching-kuo]] survived an [[Cheng Tzu-tsai#1970 assassination attempt|assassination attempt]] in [[New York City]] by [[Cheng Tzu-tsai]] and [[Peter Huang]], both members of the [[World United Formosans for Independence]]. In 1976, [[Wang Sing-nan]] sent a [[mail bomb]] to then-[[Governor of Taiwan Province]] [[Hsieh Tung-min]], who suffered serious injuries to both hands as a result.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://english.www.gov.tw/TaiwanHeadlines/index.jsp?recordid=99169|title=TaiwanHeadlines – Home – Mail bomb explodes in Taipei office|date=29 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083600/http://english.www.gov.tw/TaiwanHeadlines/index.jsp?recordid=99169|archive-date=29 September 2007|url-status=bot: unknown|access-date=31 October 2017}}</ref> The Kuomintang's heavy-handed oppression in the [[Kaohsiung Incident]], alleged involvement in the [[Lin family massacre]] and the murders of [[Chen Wen-chen]] and [[Henry Liu]], and the self-immolation of [[Cheng Nan-jung]] galvanized the Taiwanese community into political actions and eventually led to majority rule and democracy in Taiwan.

The concept of unification replaced the concept of liberation by the PRC in 1979 as it embarked, after Mao's death, on [[Chinese economic reform|economic reform]]s and pursued a more pragmatic foreign policy. In Taiwan, the possibility of the ROC retaking mainland China became increasingly remote in the 1970s, particularly after the [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758|ROC's expulsion from the United Nations]] in 1971, the establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and United States in 1979, and Chiang Kai-shek's death in 1975.<ref name=":0" />

==== Majority rule in Taiwan ====
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}
With the end of authoritarian rule in the 1980s, there was a shift in power within the KMT away from the faction who had accompanied Chiang to Taiwan. Taiwanese who grew up under Japanese rule, which accounted for more than 85% of the population, gained more influence and the KMT began to move away from its ideology of cross-strait unification. After the exposure of [[1987 Lieyu massacre]] in June, [[Martial law in Taiwan|martial law]] was finally lifted in Taiwan on 15 July 1987. Following the [[Wild Lily student movement]], President [[Lee Teng-hui]] announced in 1991 that his government no longer disputed the rule of the CCP in China, leading to semi-official peace talks (leading to what would be termed as the "[[1992 Consensus]]") between the two sides. The PRC broke off these talks in 1999 when President Lee described relations with the PRC as "[[Special state-to-state relations]]".

Until the mid-1990s, unification supporters on Taiwan were bitterly opposed to the CCP. Since the mid-1990s, there has been a considerable warming of relations between the CCP and Taiwanese unification supporters, as both oppose the pro-Taiwan independence bloc. This brought about the accusation that unification supporters were attempting to sell out Taiwan. They responded saying that closer ties with mainland China, especially economic ties, are in Taiwan's interest.

==== Rise of the Democratic Progressive Party ====
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}
After the [[2000 Taiwanese presidential election]], which brought the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party's candidate President [[Chen Shui-bian]] to power, the Kuomintang, faced with defections to the People First Party, expelled Lee Teng-hui and his supporters and reoriented the party towards unification. At the same time, the People's Republic of China shifted its efforts at unification away from military threats (which it de-emphasized but did not renounce) towards economic incentives designed to encourage Taiwanese businesses to invest in mainland China and aiming to create a pro-Beijing bloc within the Taiwanese electorate.

Within Taiwan, unification supporters tend to see "China" as a larger cultural entity divided by the Chinese Civil War into separate states or governments within the country. In addition, supporters see Taiwanese identity as one piece of a broader Chinese identity rather than as a separate cultural identity. However, supporters do oppose [[desinicization]] inherent in Communist ideology such as that seen during the [[Cultural Revolution]], along with the effort to emphasize a Taiwanese identity as separate from a Chinese one. As of the 2008 election of President [[Ma Ying-jeou]], the KMT agreed to the One China principle, but defined it as led by the Republic of China rather than the People's Republic of China.