The Taiwan challenge is usually considered by leaders of the USA and its allies as a contest between democracy and authoritarianism. From a South Korean perspective, nonetheless, the Taiwan challenge additionally represents a conflict between nationalism and liberalism. Whereas democracy is outlined by the method of forming a authorities by means of common elections, liberalism is centered on the concepts of individualism and the safety of inalienable rights in opposition to state coercion. Each South Koreans and Taiwanese residents share a liberal aspiration to protect their particular person rights and defend their freedoms from being compelled to sacrifice for the glory of nationwide unification.
Regardless of their many variations, the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait are price evaluating. As Chinese language officers continuously spotlight, South and North Korea are acknowledged as two sovereign states, having been concurrently admitted to the United Nations in 1991. In distinction, Taiwan’s sovereignty shouldn’t be acknowledged by many international locations, which solely keep diplomatic relations with the Individuals’s Republic of China. Because of this, Taiwanese folks should contemplate the implications of declaring independence, which isn’t a priority for most people in South Korea. Nonetheless, when considered by means of the lens of nationhood quite than statehood, similarities between the 2 areas start to emerge. Benedict Anderson famously described a nation as “an imagined neighborhood.” Primarily based on this definition, whereas Beijing claims that Taiwan is a part of the Chinese language state, Chinese language leaders implicitly acknowledge that Taiwan remains to be a separate nation. In any other case, why would they hassle to talk of “nationwide” unification? Subsequently, whereas South Korea and Taiwan differ of their statehood, they cope with the same challenge of nationwide unification.
As for Korean unification, North Korea’s motivation has been pushed by ethnic nationalism. In 1980, Kim Il-sung, the founding father of North Korea and the present chief’s grandfather, proposed a unified state referred to as the “Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo,” advocating for a confederal system and a gradual course of, together with the elimination of U.S. Forces Korea. Kim Jong-un asserts that he’s fulfilling the historic mission of realizing the long-awaited unification dream of all the Korean folks. This nationalistic strategy is extensively supported by the North Korean folks. In a 2019 survey of North Korean defectors who’ve resettled in South Korea, 87.1% of respondents stated they supported unification once they lived in North Korea. Nearly all of them (41.4%) hoped for unification as a result of they imagine that “North and South Koreans are the identical folks.” Whereas financial improvement and avoiding battle have been additionally cited as causes for assist, ethnic-based motivation accounted for the best proportion.
Alternatively, whereas the South Korean authorities formally pursues unification, South Korean residents have proven reducing curiosity within the thought over time. Based on a 2021 report from the Korean Institute of Nationwide Unification, South Korean’s choice for unification has dropped from 37.3% in 2016 to 22.3% in 2020, whereas their assist for peaceable coexistence has elevated from 43.1% to 56.5%. If South Koreans do categorical assist for unification, it’s typically for pragmatic causes comparable to eradicating safety threats or creating alternatives for financial improvement, quite than seeing North Koreans as a part of a single-ethnic nation. Particularly, South Korean youth of their 20s and 30s have expressed a notably damaging opinion towards unification. A putting 71.4% of these born after 1991 choose peaceable coexistence between the 2 Koreas over nationwide unification.
Undoubtedly, nationalism serves as the primary driving pressure behind Beijing’s persistent pursuit of unification with Taiwan. In his 2019 “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan,” Xi Jinping linked nationwide unification with the “China dream” of rejuvenating China’s status. On the twentieth Social gathering Congress in 2022, Xi reiterated that Beijing would “by no means promise to quit the usage of pressure” to attain the aim of nationwide reunification. Nearly all of Chinese language folks appear to assist the nationwide coverage of unification. From a younger age, Chinese language individuals are taught the importance of nationwide unification; kids’s textbooks explicitly underscore that Taiwan is a part of China. Each time Taiwan-related points make headlines, the hyper-nationalism of Chinese language youth turns into obvious. For example, when then-U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022, Chinese language netizens expressed outrage and even demanded an excessive response, comparable to capturing down her aircraft.
In distinction, Taiwanese are more and more withdrawing their assist for nationwide unification. The proportion of residents who assist unification with China has declined from 20% in 1996 to a mere 5% in 2022. Moreover, an awesome majority of 84.7% rejected Beijing’s proposal of “one nation, two techniques” as a system for unification. Notably, Taiwanese are more and more figuring out themselves as “Taiwanese” quite than Chinese language. Based on the survey of Taiwan’s Nationwide Chengchi College, the proportion of people figuring out as “Chinese language” plummeted from 25.4% to 2.4% between 1992 and 2022, whereas those that determine as “Taiwanese” rose from 17.6% to 63.7%. The tendencies of low assist for unification and the identification of Taiwanese are significantly evident amongst younger Taiwanese. Just like younger South Koreans, Taiwanese youth don’t assist the aim of unification primarily based on the rationale of nationalism.
Each younger South Koreans and Taiwanese have a definite identification that isn’t primarily based on the “imagined neighborhood” of the nation however on the norms and values of liberalism. Whereas nationalism emphasizes the significance of the group over the person, liberalism privileges the person. From a nationalist perspective, people are anticipated to align their preferences with the targets of the nation. Nonetheless, younger South Koreans and Taiwanese view their particular person rights as inalienable, which can’t be violated by state coercion. These born after 1980 in South Korea and Taiwan spent their adolescence after democratization. They’re extremely educated, well-traveled, and culturally cosmopolitan in comparison with earlier generations. Because of this, each younger South Koreans and Taiwanese don’t assume that they need to submit their particular person preferences for the nationalistic aim of unification.
These observations shed a brand new gentle on the mismatch between Beijing’s nationalistic rationale of unification and the Taiwanese folks’s liberal aspiration for autonomous life. Beijing justifies its unification coverage primarily based on the belief that Taiwanese share the identical aspirations for nationwide unification. In the course of the twentieth Social gathering Congress, Xi asserted that “realizing China’s full reunification is … a shared aspiration of all of the little children of the Chinese language nation,” and that the folks of Taiwan are members of “one household certain by blood.” Nonetheless, survey knowledge constantly signifies that those that assist unification are a tiny minority in Taiwan. Thus, Chinese language leaders’ assumption that “Taiwan compatriots” share the identical dream of unification exists solely of their creativeness. It stays unclear why Chinese language leaders proceed to advertise the unrealistic narrative of standard assist for unification in Taiwan. One potential clarification is that they’re frightened in regards to the rise of liberal forces inside China itself and are attempting to take care of management by means of a nationalistic unification marketing campaign.
In brief, South Koreans might be sympathetic to the shifting attitudes of Taiwanese residents towards unification. The survey knowledge and the comparative evaluation above recommend that, whereas South Koreans could perceive the Chinese language aspiration for nationwide unification, many wouldn’t assist Beijing’s refusal to denounce battle as a method of unification. The South Korean view reinforces the liberal logic that, though the worldwide neighborhood could acknowledge Taiwan as part of China, it opposes the tragedy of battle that might entail Chinese language forces killing Taiwanese residents within the identify of unification.
The writer’s views on this article are his personal and don’t signify the views of the U.S. Division of Protection or the Asia Pacific Heart for Safety Research.
