Taiwan: Identity Politics and Economic Free Fall in the Other China

by Collin Spears, BFPR Chief Foreign Policy Correspondent

The Other China, The Republic of China (Taiwan) does not have the myriad ethnic diversity of the People’s Republic of China (China). The latter has 56 ethnicities, minorities making up 8% of its 1.3 billion citizens. Taiwan has 23 million people, ethnic Han Chinese making up 98% of the population. The remaining 2% is composed of various aboriginal tribes. Unlike China, Taiwan is a young democracy and its politics have historically been affected by group affiliation, but these ethnic factions are all within the Han majority. Taiwan’s identity politics has and will continue to affect, not only its internal politics during the current economic crisis, but also Cross-Straits relations.

The Taiwanese Han population is divided into Mainlanders (waisheng ren) and “Native Taiwanese” (bensheng ren). The Mainlanders are primarily Chinese National Party (Guomindong, KMT) loyalists who retreated from China with the military at the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. This group, from various provinces, used Mandarin as a lingua franca. Although, currently 13% of the population, they have historically held disproportionate political power until the early 1990’s. The Native Taiwanese can be further divided into Fujianese (Fujian ren), the vast majority of Taiwan’s population, and Hakka (Kejia ren). Although linguistically distinct groups, both have resided on the island for at least 4 centuries; combined they are roughly 85% of Taiwan’s population. The Natives were culturally and politically oppressed by the military dictatorship that ruled Taiwan during a period of marshal law known as the “White Terror”, which lasted from 1949 to 1987. During this period, for many Natives, the Mainlanders were seen as oppressors and the KMT was viewed as their instrument. The reality is more complicated, as neither group has been completely endogenous.