The Chinese Communist Party and the Status of Taiwan, 1928-1943

Abstract

THE PURPOSE of this study is to examine the Chinese Communist position towards the Taiwanese people and political movements on Taiwan, during the period from 1928 to 1943, and to discuss the impact of the 1943 Cairo Conference (which called for a return of Taiwan to Chinese sovereignty) on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies. Briefly stated, our findings reveal that: (a) between 1928 and 1943 Communist Party leaders consistently recognized the Taiwanese as a distinct nation or (minzu); (b) they acknowledged the national liberation movement on Taiwan as a struggle of a weak and small nationality (ruoxiao minzu) separate from the Chinese revolution and potentially sovereign; and (c) after 1943, particularly after the Cairo Conference, they reversed positions by disavowing Taiwanese ethnic separateness and rejecting the independence of political movements on the island.' These positions and shifts were formalized in official CCP decisions and statements by Party leaders, and expressed through key political terminology.