Kosovo is not Taiwan

By WU JIAXIANG, BEIJING, China

Published: February 21, 2008

World history was made on Feb. 17 as one country lost a province and one more sovereign state was created on Earth, through Kosovo's declaration of independence from the Republic of Serbia. The newborn nation has a population of only 2 million, living on 10,000 square kilometers (around 4,000 square miles) of land.

Like an inflamed appendix in the body of the former Yugoslavia and Serbia, Kosovo has been a painful issue for 20 years. This time, it decided that strong, short-term pain is better than long suffering, and cut itself off from the main body.

While communism was fading away in the Soviet Union and Europe, in 1989 the Republic of Serbia, struggling for survival, revised its Constitution and partially repealed Kosovo's autonomy in order to maintain its sacred sense of identity. This upset the Albanian population, and was the beginning of the "appendicitis." (Ethnic tension has endured in this region since the 14th century. Kosovo was the scene of a significant battle against the Ottoman Empire, which drove Christian Serbs from the region and allowed Muslim Albanians to occupy it.)

Major nations have conflicting views on Kosovo's independence; as for the Chinese living on this planet, they are certainly not of one accord on this issue. Almost all Chinese have strong views about it -- not because Kosovo affects their immediate interests, but because of the inevitable association of this case with Taiwan's call for independence. The "green camp" followers in Taiwan are inspired, the "blue camp" supporters are hesitant and the "reds" are worried.

However, there is not much reason to associate Kosovo with Taiwan. There is little similarity between Kosovo's independence and Taiwan's attempts to separate from mainland China, in terms of logic, legality or international politics.

First of all, the issue of Kosovo is rooted in race; the Taiwan issue is not. Kosovo's population is 90 percent Albanian; the majority of the population in both Taiwan and mainland China is of the Han race, despite the fact that Taiwan's current authority under the Democratic Progressive Party has been purposely sowing discord, conflict and confrontation between people it has labeled "islanders" and those it calls "mainlanders," although both groups have long lived on Taiwan island.

The impulse for independence among those of a minority race within a country has long existed, even in major democratic countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom. But within one race, despite large-scale migration of the population, there is only the issue of power or authority, not the issue of self-determination.

Secondly, the Kosovo issue is the legacy of imperialism and totalitarianism; the Taiwan issue is not. Simply put, before 1911 Taiwan was within the domain of the Qing Dynasty of China, while Kosovo belonged to the Ottoman Empire. After 1949, Kosovo was brought under the control of a totalitarian regime, while Taiwan was left outside a new regime.

Taiwan's history as part of mainland China can be traced. But Kosovo's history as part of Serbia was broken off for 400 years, due to shifts in the body of the nation. Another factor is that calls for independence were part of the wave that swept Eastern Europe during the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union; Kosovo is the embers left from this fire. Taiwan wasn't affected by such a force, however.

Finally, Kosovo is of considerable geopolitical significance for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United States. Taiwan is significant to Japan in this light.

Kosovo is located in the heartland between Eastern and Western Europe; it is part of the historical competition over the Slavic nations between these two groups. Thus Western Europe and the United States are willing to accept Kosovo's independence.

Taiwan is outside the European system; Europe and the United States could not easily reach the same opinion were Taiwan to separate from mainland China. If Taiwan broke away from China, the international political balance would incline toward Japan and the United States, which would not necessarily serve the interests of Europe.

Kosovo is not Taiwan. The inappropriate association of these two issues should not be allowed to harm either Taiwan or mainland China.

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(Wu Jiaxiang is a renowned economic and political scholar and a former visiting scholar at Harvard University's Fairbanks Center for East Asian Research. His research covers economics, domestic and international politics, business strategy, and Chinese traditional strategy and thought. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online; the original can be found at www.ncn.org. ©Copyright Wu Jiaxiang.)

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