Taiwan, Taipei: Why Does the Chinese Communist Party Place so Much Emphasis on Naming the Island?

Taiwan, Taipei: why does the Chinese Communist Party place so much emphasis on naming the island? To attempt to answer this question, first the origin of the conflict has to be analyzed. Beginning in the 1940’s, the CCP’s victory over the Kuomintang symbolized the beginning of cross-strait issues. However, it wasn’t until 1992 when George Bush Senior decided to announce that the United States would sell D-15 fighter jets to Taiwan. This action caused cross-strait tensions to reach an all time low between Taiwan, China, and the United States.

For the first time in the history of cross-strait tensions, there was a real threat that Washington and the CCP could engage in war. Washington’s involvement would come in because of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. The implication of this Act is that the U.S. promised to protect Taiwan in the event of an attack. Therefore, if the CCP decided to engage in a war with Taiwan, the United States would have no choice but to support Taiwan.

In regard to the CCP, its involvement would come in because the CCP still considers Taiwan as part of China. Since Deng Xiaoping’s era, the CCP has promoted nationalism as the new direction of the Party instead of communism. Part of promoting that image is ensuring the unity of China. This includes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as part of China. Therefore, this leads into the three possible reasons why the CCP places so much emphasis on using the name Taipei to identify the island.

First, if the CCP recognizes Taipei as an independent state, the CCP risks losing it bargaining power over the decisions and actions taken in regard to the island. A country’s bargaining power is the strength of a states claim over the disputed territory. A decline in this power mea...

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...ities as a responsible state holder. One of the consequences of the international community questioning China’s military capabilities is that the international community could potentially induce an unproductive arms race with China. If China is to participate in the race, China will have a weakened competitive position in the races of economic and intellectual strength. Secondly, China will lose the ability to use its army as a form of soft power therefore making it harder to believe that China can be a responsible state holder since it will seem like propaganda. In terms of China, the world is in a very exciting position with the promotion of the China’s model an alternative governing system is being offered. However, we need to remain vigilant and aware for just as quickly as China rose, it has the potential to fall as well if it doesn’t play it’s cards right.