As 2026 opens, Taiwan has moved beyond a regional flashpoint. Now it's become arguably the definitive arena for potential China-U.S. hostile military action. Many believe that would constitute a threat to global stability.
China's present-day ownership claim to Taiwan is at the heart of the matter.
According to China Daily, President Xi Jinping stated in his 2026 New Year address, "We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship. The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable!"
But two of his claims are counterfactual: First is his premise that "blood and kinship" provide a bond between
China and
Taiwan. Second is use of the term "reunification."
A bond of blood and kinship? A blood or DNA connection is one thing. But a feeling of kinship is something else. A 2024 Pew Research study found that over two-thirds of
Taiwan adults identify as primarily Taiwanese; three percent identify as Chinese. Less than half feel any emotional attachment to
China, and even that is influenced greatly by views of the older generation. Indeed, the island's original inhabitants were Austronesian peoples, predating later Han Chinese migration from the mainland.
Reunification? Logically reunification must follow a parted state of unification. The People's Republic of
China has never been united with
Taiwan. Since the late 1800s
Taiwan was subject to Japanese sovereignty and rule. It had been ceded to
Japan in perpetuity in a mutual treaty by the Qing Dynasty. Later, during World War II, Taiwanese soldiers fought on the Japanese side against the Allies, including
China.
Nonetheless,
China's reunification claim does have a historical association. But it is with a fraud, not a fact.
There is a largely unspoken story that explains that fraud. The setting is
China, 1945, the end of World War II in the Pacific. A formal military surrender to the "Allied Powers" had been accepted aboard the USS Missouri in
Tokyo Bay by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. That was September 2, 1945.
The surrender was valid not only for
Japan proper, but also for its external territories. Surrender ceremonies on different dates took place in these locations as well. They were connected to the disarming of millions of Japanese troops stationed in those territories.
For the
Taiwan ceremony, for instance, MacArthur ordered Chiang Kai-shek to accept the surrender on that island on behalf of the Allied Powers. This duty was mandated in the document "Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, General Order No. One". That order also provided for the subsequent military occupation in the name of the Allied Command.
Chiang was a natural for the job. During the war Chiang had held a prestigious position along with Eisenhower, Churchill, and Stalin as one of the Big Four allied military leaders. He, of course, was president of
China, and served as the Supreme Commander of the China Theater. He was addressed as "General Chiang Kai-shek".
So what's the alleged fraud all about? It took place on October 25, 1945. It was a monumental day. The surrender was accepted per Order No. 1. The military occupation ordered by the Allied Command commenced.
But then something surprising happened: Chiang broke ranks from the Allies and annexed the Allied occupied
territory of Taiwan on behalf of his own country, the Republic of China. The island surrender and the annexation happened in the same room on the very same day according to George Kerr, a
U.S. military witness.
This all ran completely counter to Chiang's delegated authority from the Allied Command. After accepting the local surrender, his duty was simply to be somewhat like a property manager for the island, not an owner.
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