class=”sc-3778e872-0 cKDKQr”>
Taiwan is in China’s crosshairs. Experts have been speculating for months about a possible invasion of the island by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The American secret service CIA assumes an attack in the coming years. And yet young people decide to move to the island to follow in their family’s footsteps, to live and work there.
One of them is Brian Hioe (31). He grew up in New York. His mother is Taiwanese, his father has Chinese-Indonesian roots and came to the island in the 1960s when it was still a military dictatorship under ruler Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Growing up in Brian’s homeland of the US, Brian had a folkloric view of island life. So in 2014, he decided to move to Taiwan after high school to study. “Actually, I wanted to explore all of Asia from there. But nothing came of that. I’m still here,” says Hioe.
During his studies, the American became acquainted with the sunflower movement. At the time, students opposed a trade deal that the Conservative government wanted to push through without a parliamentary vote. It was feared that Taiwan’s independence would be lost through the back door. Brian joined the movement and still publishes his own magazine, which he started at the time, called New Bloom. Now he is standing at a bar that belongs to the editorial office. Discussion events and small concerts also take place here. As he washes down a beer glass, he says, “I was an activist when I was in school.” Now he lives in a country that bases its existence on activism.
Xi attacks Taiwanese moneylenders
Taiwan’s geopolitical situation is unique in the world, which is why Brian Hioe will probably never run out of material. Taiwan is the last corner of the Republic of China, whose army was defeated in 1949 by the forces of Mao Zedong (1893-1976) after decades of civil war. Founded in 1912, the government of the first Chinese republic retreated to the island of Taiwan with about two million refugees and artistic and cultural treasures they had rescued from Mao. The communist proclaimed the People’s Republic of China, but until the late 1970s, most countries in the world continued to recognize the Republic of China, which is also a founding member of the United Nations. After the world community followed the example of the US and diplomatically recognized the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan was given special status and the US guaranteed by law that it would support the small country in its defense against the neighboring People’s Republic of China should danger threaten from there. Today, numerous countries maintain quasi-diplomatic relations with the country. However, since taking office, Beijing’s ruler Xi Jinping (69) has put pressure on more and more countries and companies that list Taiwan as their own on their websites.
Since coming to power in 2013, he has never tired of advocating “reunification” as the main goal of his lifelong tenure. He claims that no war is needed for this to happen. But in March, at key meetings in Beijing, Xi called on the military to prepare for impending war. In Taipei you will now find signs in Chinese and English pointing in the direction of the next bomb shelter. The danger is real, and Hioe knows it too: “My joy and I know we could die here.”
To get to know the Taiwan of his ancestors before being subjugated by the Chinese army, Johnson Liu (27) came to the island from Australia six years ago for a long time and for a sad reason. “After my grandfather’s death, according to tradition, we lived together as a family for a month in my grandparents’ house in the country.” The togetherness, the traditions – all this made Johnson want to go back to Taiwan “before it was too late”, as he puts it.
In March he returned with the family to observe the traditional funerary rituals that take place once a year. Since the end of the holiday, he has been traveling around the island, using his camera to capture scenes of life that is still going on in many places outside the metropolis of Taipei – in the small seaside towns and in the mountains. as it was decades ago. He always has his camera with him so he doesn’t miss a good moment, his eyes are wide awake, every gesture is considered.
Traditional family life also brought Emily Knox (33) back to Taiwan. As a child she spent a few years in Kaohsiung, a port metropolis in the south of the country with three million inhabitants. The port is one of the 20 largest in the world, the weather is always sunny, very humid from May to October, but not as rainy as the capital Taipei in the north. “We lived together as a family in a multi-storey house. It was absolutely clear that the younger generation would take care of the older generation,” she says, who is now a DJ at Taipei Techno Clubs. “This is not a matter of course in the US.”
Emily is at home in Taipei’s alternative scene, where she worked as a bartender, singer and dancer. “With my degree in Business Administration, I never really did anything. Dance and music have always interested me more than figures and quarterly figures,” she says. She wants to fulfill her own dream, Emily sounds very American here.
Immigration is declining
The number of foreigners living in Taiwan has steadily increased since the island’s democratic upheavals in the early 1990s. In 1992 there were only about 45,000 people, by 2020 that number had risen to almost 800,000 people living and working on the island along with about 23.5 million Taiwanese women. But the corona pandemic and the precarious political situation in which the island finds itself due to the continuing threat from the neighboring People’s Republic put an end to this trend: the number of foreigners in Taiwan has been declining since 2020 and was last around 753,000.
Since his childhood in Australia, Johnson Liu has lived a life that tries to unite different identities: “At school, we were raised according to Western values and encouraged to express our opinions and challenge our teachers. At home, the exact opposite was true, namely respect for the elderly, whose statements were not questioned. » Johnson doesn’t think one is better than the other. “But at some point I realized that I’m not just Australian, I’m also Taiwanese.”
Like Johnson and Emily, Brian spoke Mandarin with his parents at home. This language skills made it easier for all three of them to decide to move to Taiwan permanently. All three appreciate in some way the traditional way of life on the island, which is different from that of the English-speaking western countries where they grew up. At the same time, Emily thinks: “In Taiwan, especially among the younger generation, there is now an openness to new things that did not exist in the past.” The young island democracy is considered the most liberal country in this region of the world. Taiwan became the first Asian country to introduce universal marriage in 2019, at a time when Xi began cracking down on gays in China. No Pride Parade has been allowed to take place in Shanghai for three years. The parade in Taipei is the largest in this part of the world and attracts guests from all over the world. In The Economist’s Global Democracy Index, Taiwan ranks 8th for openness, Germany 15th, and the United States 26th.
Continuing concerns about China
That this could end any day worries the people of Taiwan. “Care is always somewhere in the back of our minds,” says Brian, “and has been more or less constant since 2014, since the sunflower movement.” After the visit of American politician Nancy Pelosi (83) in August 2022, Beijing practiced a complete blockade of the island for the first time. For days, no ships could enter or leave the port of Kaohsiung, which affected world trade. This summer, record numbers of Taiwanese enrolled in survival courses to prepare them for a possible outbreak of war.
“The army here may not be able to defend the island,” Emily fears. It’s a concern she shares with President Tsai Ing-wen, 66, who recently increased conscription from four months to a year. Even if the People’s Liberation Army, as the Chinese army is called, is much larger than the Taiwanese, with two million warriors, who have a standing army of some 170,000 soldiers, Beijing’s victory is anything but certain. Landing on the coast of Taiwan would not be easy. An occupation of the island would have to take place quickly before the US could come to Taiwan’s aid from its base in nearby Okinawa, Japan.
Xi Jinping looks closely at the mistakes Vladimir Putin (70) made in Ukraine. Xi is already preparing for a possible battle: recruiting offices are being opened all over the People’s Republic to make the army even bigger. “If the going gets tough, my partner and I will have to go back to the United States if war breaks out,” Emily fears. “But if we can help here in any way, we’ll stay here.”
Since his return to Taiwan in March, the references to the bunkers have also caught Johnson’s eye. “The situation is becoming increasingly uncertain,” he says. “Even if I’m stuck here if something happens, I’m still an optimist.” Everything will depend on how the international community positions itself towards Taiwan,” says Brian.
US President Joe Biden (80) has already announced that he will help defend Taiwan if Beijing really attacks. The loss of the democratic country to Beijing would affect democracies around the world. Democracy, freedom and human rights are a thorn in Xi Jinping’s side. He hates activists, artists and musicians like Brian, Johnson and Emily.
Xi Jinping denies the Taiwanese their own identity. Just as his best friend Vladimir Putin claims Ukraine doesn’t exist, Xi says the Taiwanese are “separatists” who must be fought for the sake of the Chinese nation. If you listen to the young people who have come to the island to learn about this part of their identity and who, like Brian, Emily and Johnson, stay after finding what they are looking for, you soon learn that the opposite is true: Taiwan today is a modern, cosmopolitan democracy. “It’s a shame that the world is hearing about Taiwan today because China is threatening war,” Johnson said. “The country has such a rich cultural heritage to explore,” he says. Hopefully the world will have time for that.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
