Taiwanese Independence Since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when Taiwan split from the Communist mainland China, both China and Taiwan have lived with the understanding that there is one China and Taiwan is part of it. Driven by strong ties of culture, economics, and face, the Chinese promise the use of force if Taiwan officially declares independence. With seemingly fewer of Taiwan’s residents wishing to merge each year, and with China's growing economic and military dominance in the region, we all wait to see what comes of this fifty-year-old promise for reunification.
Michael Turton - The DPP did not "cast" 2-28 massacres as clashes between Taiwanese and KMT outsiders -- that's what they were. The KMT defined them that way, publicly and literally, when it moved onto the island, looted it extensively, removed Taiwanese from positions of authority, told the Taiwanese they were a people tainted by association with the Japanese, and then excluded them from public life. George Kerr's account of the event, Formosa Betrayed, is online, easily Googled.
The DPP did not "open old wounds" in Taiwan, but is trying to heal them by the application of democracy and history. In other post-authoritarian and post-colonial contexts, it is... 
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ACB - It is a cliché of the relationship between Taiwan and China that whenever one speaks of reunification the other speaks of separatism; I would liken the tense relationship between the two camps as being like relationship between republicans and nationalists in the Republic of Ireland. One camp rabidly desires to unify with Eire and one camp rabidly desires not to.
I know that there are a lot of disparities between these two analogies but overall the mutual distrust and the willingness to use force stand.
For some strange reason, that the people of China put down to simply mindedness or the influence of propaganda, the people of Taiwan...
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7.30.07
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UN Rejection and Chinese Economic Pressure
Resken - Interesting timing considering that Taiwan was just rejected by the UN. A huge part of the problem is that China leans on the international community, using its economy and trade policy as leverage. No wonder the EU doesn't recognize Taiwan. A slew of Central American countries have recently succumbed to China's pressure
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