Email of the writer: jw368@163.com
While China is getting stronger day by day, the Chinese people are in no mood for elation since the Chinese family is still in a state of division. China’s great mission of national rejuvenation won’t be complete without national reunification.
Lying off the southeastern coast of the Chinese mainland, Taiwan is China’s largest island and forms an integral whole with the mainland.
Taiwan, known as Yizhou or Liuqiu in antiquities, has belonged to China since ancient times. According to the Seaboard Geographic Gazetteer (which was compiled more than 1,700 years ago by Shen Ying of the State of Wu during the period of the Three Kingdoms), Chinese mainland people were involved in Taiwan’s early development.
China’s rule of Taiwan dates back to the State of Wu (220-280) and the Sui Dynasty (581-618) when the courts sent expeditions, each numbering over 10,000 men, to Taiwan.
Chinese governments of different periods set up administrative bodies to exercise jurisdiction over Taiwan. As early as in the mid-12th century, the Song Dynasty (960-1279) ruler set up a garrison in Penghu, putting the territory under the jurisdiction of Jinjiang County of Fujian’s Quanzhou Prefecture.
Afterwards, Taiwan had been under the rule of China until the signing of the iniquitous Treaty of Shimonoseki between the Qing government and Japan in 1895, after the former was defeated by the latter in the First Sino-Japanese War. The humiliating treaty ceded Taiwan to Japan, marking the beginning of a national tragedy that has been tormenting the Chinese people until this day.
The victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan in 1945 led to the end of Japan’s 50-year-long occupation of Taiwan. The Cairo Declaration declared the restoration of Taiwan’s sovereignty to China and the Potsdam Proclamation reconfirmed the document.
The international community, including the U.S., has acknowledged the fact that Taiwan belongs to China.
But for some reason unknown to all, a couple of political parties that have lost legitimacy are still controlling Taiwan, and secessionists are obstinately obstructing reunification.
The biggest obstacle to China’s reunification, however, is America’s interference with China’s internal affairs. Despite its repeated pledges that the U.S. adheres to the One China policy and objects to Taiwan’s independence, it has been creating difficulties for China’s efforts for reunification.
On the other hand, the Chinese mainland recognizes the fact that there are divided opinions on both sides across the Taiwan Strait on such issues as the definition of “One China” and in what way the reunification should be achieved. There is still a long way to go before the majority of the people in Taiwan accept unification with the Chinese mainland.
Under the principles of peaceful reunification and “one country, two systems,” the Chinese Central Government has been showing the utmost good faith and patience toward the authorities and people of Taiwan.
President Xi Jinping has repeatedly expressed his hope that the two sides across the Strait would uphold the idea of “compatriots on both sides being of one family.”
Following the numerous preferential measures to facilitate Taiwanese compatriots’ ability to travel to, live in and work in the Chinese mainland over the past years, the Chinese mainland has introduced numerous new measures to ensure equal treatment for Taiwanese compatriots and businesses.
Unveiled by the concerned departments Feb. 28, the new measures cover a wide range of items that concern Taiwanese compatriots’ welfare.
Taiwanese compatriots will be allowed to enroll in 53 professional and technical occupation qualification examinations and participate in qualification examinations for 81 personnel occupation skills.
Taiwan-funded enterprises can invest on the mainland and receive equal treatment as mainland enterprises, and Taiwan enterprises that participate in “Made in China 2025” will enjoy the same preferential policies as mainland enterprises.
Equal treatment will be applied to Taiwanese and mainland people when it comes to study, entrepreneurship and employment.
Taiwan TV dramas introduced by mainland agencies can broadcast without quantity limits, and there will be no limits for Taiwanese people who want to participate in mainland film and television production.
Blood is thicker than water, and no one can stop the reunion of the brothers of one family. Any attempt to separate Taiwan from China is doomed to fail!
(The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)