Taiwan:
Military Maneuvers and Propaganda

Apr 14, 2025

This article is translated from the April 11 issue #2958 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.

The Chinese military staged a show of force around Taiwan on April 1 and 2, simulating a blockade of the island. These military maneuvers provided the media with an opportunity to denounce once again China’s alleged threat to Taiwan’s “democracy” and to showcase an imperialist force like the French navy as protection.

Taiwan is 81 miles off the Chinese coast, a population of 23 million, and is claimed by the Chinese government in Beijing. In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang strongmen who massacred workers and were soundly rejected by the Chinese population and defeated by Mao’s armies took refuge in Taiwan. Under the protection of the U.S. army, Chiang separated the island from mainland China. While China was under embargo, imperialism recognized not Beijing but Taiwan as the official Chinese state and gave it a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Taiwan served as a rear base for the U.S. during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The island was portrayed as a bulwark of democracy against Chinese communism. But Taiwan was a penal colony for its working class. Martial law was imposed and was not lifted until 1987. Then the regime adopted a democratic facade from the 1990s onward. But the statue of Chiang Kai-shek still stands in the capital Taipei. The military-police apparatus lasting from the decades of terror is still the backbone of the state.

China has regained its international status today, but it has not regained Taiwan, which remains an asset in the hands of imperialism against Beijing. For over 40 years, the status quo has consisted of the Chinese regime tolerating Taiwan’s undeclared but de facto independence. Imperialism dominates Taiwan’s regime by using it as a regional proxy.

The April maneuvers are part of this power struggle between China and Western imperialism. Beijing is flexing its muscles and striking a nationalist chord with some Chinese people. On the other side, the Western powers do the same. France’s media made a big deal of maritime maneuvers in February dubbed “Pacific Steller.” French TV showed French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, U.S. Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, and Japanese aircraft carrier JS Kaga steaming by the coast of the Philippines and painted them as a necessary counterbalance to Chinese power. The report criticized “all-powerful China” and claimed, “France’s prosperity depends on the stability of the region.” The media praised French military equipment and tried to show France’s ability to wage war alongside American imperialism against China.

French imperialism wants a walk-on role in future conflicts. For this, Paris must show measurable military might. Paris also has to convince its population to accept the necessary sacrifices. This will not be to defend Taiwanese “democracy” or French prosperity, but rather the wealth of French and U.S. industrialists and bankers, and to ensure their access to any future re-division of markets.