By Caleb Cruseturner
We are frequently told by China’s rulers that “Taiwan has been a part of China since ancient times.” Few stop to think what this might mean, but, translated from the original Newspeak, it reads, “The Qing Dynasty subjugated Taiwan in 1683 and held it as a colonial possession until 1895.”
1683. Hardly ancient times. The golden glories of old Rome had long since vanished, and even the silver city of New Rome had faded into the slang term “Istanbul.” In 1683, Latin America stood just short of a decade away from the bicentenary of Columbus’s voyage, marking its slide into bondage to the states of Iberia. Meanwhile, a quarter century before the dawn of the UK, Merrie Olde England dominated America’s eastern seaboard, while France held a swathe of territory stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1683, the old world offered still more unfamiliar borders. Turkey held Crimea and much of Araby under the Ottomite yoke, and many a Serb was sent to storm the Viennese ramparts in that year so that the sultan might extend his Balkan possessions at the expense of an expansive Austrian empire. When John Sobieski’s winged hussars arrived to break the siege, that king of Poland could call on horsemen from Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, and Galicia, though not from Estonia or Finland, which belonged to Sweden, nor Iceland and Norway, which belonged to Denmark. At any rate, Sobieski’s multi-national force proved enough to repel that of the Turks, which must have pleased the Ottomans’ rivals in Iran, who also controlled Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. If Taiwan’s “ancient” status as China’s old possession means that it ought to join today’s Maoist state, then why shouldn’t any number of older possessions return to the folds of their former masters?
Allow me a clarification: I did not earlier intend to imply that 1683 was a nadir of national independence. In that year, the Dalai Lama reigned over a free Tibet under the supervision of the Khoshut Khan. The Uyghur Yarkent Khanate held territory in the Tarim Basin. In the north, various native chieftains ruled so-called “Inner Mongolia.” Does the CCP wish to reimpose those “ancient” borders as well?
Perhaps the Communist propagandists will admit that history is incapable of supporting such territorial claims and move onto the presumably safer ground that Taiwan ought to be a part of China because Taiwan is so close to the Cantonese coast and, after two centuries of Qing rule, came to resemble that bygone version of China. Friends, Taiwan is a Confucian democracy, while China is an irreligious authoritarian kleptocracy. If geographical and cultural proximity count for anything, let China annex Russia.
Editor’s Note: As part of my commitment to transmit more content of high quality on this newsletter, we will occasionally feature pieces penned by my son, Caleb Cruseturner (no relation). A graduate of Baylor University’s Honors College (University Scholars), Caleb thinks deeply, reads extensively, and listens to a multitude of podcasts about history, politics, and religion.