Abigail Wallach and George Williams: Taiwan is just as important as mainland China
Luby Liao
Many Americans understand that Taiwan considers itself to be an independent country. But what is less commonly understood is that, functionally, Taiwan is independent.
In response to Johannknecht: Taiwan is just as important as mainland China
In his Oct. 28 Record op-ed, Rem Johannknecht ’26 argued for the diplomatic value of studying abroad in China. Although he discusses tensions in the Taiwan Strait, Johannknecht only briefly mentions Taiwan, writing that studying abroad in Taiwan is “no substitute for firsthand engagement with the mainland.”
We’re writing this piece because, this past spring, the two of us spent five months studying abroad in Taiwan. We agree that studying in China offers an invaluable opportunity to bridge the growing tensions between the United States and China through human connection. But Johannknecht’s quick dismissal of Taiwan risks treating the country simply as a passive actor that is inherently tied to the United States or China.
Yes, we need to understand China, the “other side.” But there is also a third side, and if we do not engage with Taiwanese as well as Chinese people, we risk, in Johannknecht’s words, “talking past those who impact the future we’re trying to navigate.”
In the United States, we rarely, if ever, discuss Taiwan’s domestic politics, giving the false impression that it is silent and one-dimensional. But Taiwan is neither. It is a lively democracy with citizens who hold a myriad of opinions and who use political debate to negotiate both their history and future.
For most Americans, Taiwanese history starts in 1949, when the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, fled to the island from the mainland. But as we saw firsthand during our five months abroad, Taiwan has thousands of years of history and indigenous culture. Only in the last few hundred years has that indigenous culture come into conflict with waves of Han Chinese migration.
Taiwanese politics in the last century have also been more complicated than we are often taught. Beginning in 1949, a dictatorship led by Chiang Kai-shek destroyed political opposition, disappeared civilians, and violated other human rights during a period now called the White Terror that spanned over 40 years.
Today, Taiwan is revisiting those difficult periods of its history. Following years of advocacy, indigenous groups on the island can now access more education and government services in their native languages. While Mandarin Chinese is still the national language, we commonly heard other languages spoken on the street and used in announcements on buses and trains, including Hokkien (also called Taiwanese), Hakka, and indigenous languages. Furthermore, White Terror-era political prisons are now open to the public, monuments are dedicated to those who were imprisoned and killed by the government, and the former Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square has been renamed “Liberty Square.”
In May, we traveled to the White Terror Memorial Park, previously a notorious prison, on Taiwan’s Green Island. Touring the museum and park, we watched video testimony from former political prisoners and saw contemporary artwork commemorating victims. As we saw how Taiwan’s government has atoned for its past, however imperfectly, we found that Taiwan can set an example for how the United States might acknowledge and redress historical wrongs.
As Americans debate Taiwan’s fate in Congress and in classrooms, Taiwanese people are debating and defining their own future. Walking to class at National Taiwan University every day, we passed young people protesting members of the opposition party in the Taiwanese national legislature. During classes, our teachers told us that they were afraid that, if Taiwan formally declared independence, family members might have to take up arms against a Chinese invasion. Out in the streets of Taipei, we saw political graffiti connecting Taiwan’s future to the present situations in Hong Kong and Ukraine. Friends told us that they were afraid a Chinese takeover would mean losing the right to marry someone of the same sex.
Similarly, we saw firsthand that the way we talk about Taiwan in the United States does not reflect the reality on the ground. Many Americans understand that Taiwan considers itself to be an independent country. But what is less commonly understood is that, functionally, Taiwan is independent. Taiwan has its own political system, its own military, and its own economy. In national debates and in classrooms, we toss around words like “independence” and “reunification” that mean little to us but have dramatic consequences for millions of Taiwanese citizens. Many Taiwanese people are concerned about the possibility of a Chinese invasion, but in Taiwan, the idea that China in any way controls Taiwan is far from reality.
It is natural to focus first and foremost on the foreign policy of one’s own country. Rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait raise the specter of a military confrontation between the United States and China, and as China’s power grows, the Taiwan Strait will become increasingly important in conversations about U.S. foreign policy.
But traveling to China alone cannot illuminate the full consequences of U.S. policy toward Taiwan and China. In the United States, our conversations about Taiwan could translate into real-world costs for millions of people who have built, over the course of decades and even centuries, a culture, history, and political system separate from the mainland. Abstract discussions of semiconductor technology, regional trade agreements, or military interests, important as they are, can only show part of the picture.
Taiwan is a country dealing not only with its future but also with its past, shaping and investigating its own identity. Yes, it’s important to study abroad in China. But unless we place an equal value on cultural exchange with Taiwan, we risk dehumanizing a conflict with profoundly human consequences.
Abigail Wallach ’25 is a political science and Chinese major from Orinda, Calif. George Williams ’25 is a political science and Chinese major from Denver, Colo.
