By: Kaamilya Salaam
This past Wednesday, Dr. Thomas J. Bellows spoke as a part of the Shaping the 21st Century series at Louisiana Tech University.
Dr. Bellows is professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the editor of American Journal of Chinese Studies.
Bellows speech focused on Taiwan as one of the tiniest countries to globalize trade, how China is for their trade relations but against the ideal of Taiwan declaring independence. He also discussed the corruption within Taiwan’s government, which lead to a new political party and the acceptance of the 1992 Consensus.
“Taiwan has 23 million people living within 14,000 square miles with an import/export that is bigger than its gross margin,” Bellows said. “Although Taiwan is small and very crowded it produces 274 billion exports a year and half goes to China.”
In addition to Taiwan’s globalized trading Bellows also discussed how China is for their trade relations but against the ideal of Taiwan declaring independence.
“With the slogan “No unification, no independence, no use of force, China’s government has made it obvious that they don’t mind the trade arrangements, but they are against Taiwan declaring independence,” said Bellows.
According to Bellows, Taiwan’s trade arrangements are not an issue for China right now but its trade with South East Asia could become a problem if their trading becomes better than China’s. With the Chinese not wanting Taiwan to become independent came the corruption of the Taiwanese government which led to a new political party and the acceptance of the 1992 Consensus.
“The previous president was corrupted,” Bellows said. “He is now serving prison time for stealing money form the government.”
The downfall of the previous president led to the election of President Ma Ying-jeou in 2008. With President Ma’s election came the acceptance of the 1992 Consensus. The 1992 Consensus is a term used to describe the outcome of a meeting in 1992 between the semi-official representatives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China and the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The Consensus is a forum on the subject of the “One China principle”, both sides recognize there is only one China – both mainland China and Taiwan belong to the same China, but both sides agree to verbally express the meaning of “one China” according to their own individual definition.
Bellows stated, “Both are better off as things stand today however as leadership changes the objective will also.”
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