History of cross-strait relations

History of cross-strait relations

臺灣海峽
West Coast of the Strait	Period	Major cross-strait events	East Coast of the Strait
Song dynasty	1171	Han Chinese fishermen settle on Penghu and soldiers are stationed	Taiwan prehistory
	1225	Penghu is attached to Quanzhou
Yuan dynasty	1281	Establishment of Penghu Inspection Division
	1349	A Brief History of the Island of Yi by Wang Dayuan
Ming dynasty	1603	Dongfanji by Chen Di
	1624	Battle of Penghu	Under Dutch and Spanish rule
	1633	Battle of Liaoluo Bay
Southern Ming	1661	Siege of Fort Zeelandia	Kingdom of Tungning
Qing dynasty	1667	Ding Wei floating man incident
	1683	Penghu Sea Battle
	1684	Establishment of Taiwan	Qing dynasty
	1731	Ta-Chia-hsi revolt
	1840	First Opium War
	1885	Taiwan is founded as a province
	1895	Treaty of Shimonoseki	Japan
	1900	Xiamen Events
Republic of China (Mainland China)	1911	1911 Revolution
	1943	1943 Cairo Declaration
	1945	Surrender of Japan Takeover of Taiwan and Penghu	Republic of China (Taiwan)
	1947	February 28 incident
People's Republic of China	1949	Relocation of the National Government
	1978	Chinese economic reform
	1979	Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
	1987	Open cross-strait family visits
	1993	Wang–Koo summit
	1996	Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
	2001	Cross-strait implementation of the Little Three Way
	2010	Cross-strait signing of ECFA
	2014	Disputes over the Trade and Services Census The Sunflower Movement
	2015	Ma–Xi meeting
	2022	2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan
	Present	Political status of Taiwan

The history of cross-strait relations introduces the historical changes in the relationship between China and Taiwan since the beginning of time. Suspected records of Taiwan in the history of China date back to the earliest times, when Yizhou (island) was mentioned in the "Three Kingdoms", or Liuqiu in the "Book of Sui".^[1] During the Song dynasty and the Yuan dynasty, there was trade between the two sides of the Strait, and in 1281, Kublai Khan established the Penghu Inspection Division, which began to exercise administrative jurisdiction over Penghu. In 1349, Wang Dayuan documented in Island Yi Zhi Lu that Penghu belonged to Jinjiang County, Quanzhou, and that Liuqiu was one of the overseas countries.^[2] The "Dongfan Ji", written by Chen Di in the Ming dynasty, depicts the customs of the aborigines in southwest Taiwan.^[3] Since the 1620s, cross-strait relations have been influenced by the Dutch, the Spanish, the Han Chinese, the Manchus, and the Japanese, and mainland China and Taiwan have either unified or separated, with ups and downs.^[4]

In 1945, World War II ended and the Republic of China took over Taiwan. Cross-strait relations developed in a tortuous manner in response to changes in the domestic and international situation. In the second Chinese Communist Revolution, the Nationalist Army led by the Kuomintang was defeated by the Liberation Army led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1949, the People's Republic of China was established and gradually took control of the entire Chinese mainland. The Republic of China, on the other hand, retreated to Taiwan, Penghu, Jinma, and other islands. The CCP tried to liberate Taiwan, and the Kuomintang prepared to counter-attack the mainland. A military confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait began and many armed clashes took place.

After the People's Republic of China replaced the Republic of China (ROC) as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in 1971, the foreign relations of Taiwan were limited. On January 1, 1979, the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations with the United States and, at the same time, announced the end of the shelling of Kinmen and proposed a policy of peaceful reunification and one country, two systems.^[5] In 1987, after the Republic of China lifted the curfew and opened up cross-strait family visits, cross-strait relations became smoother. But in 1995, when President Lee Teng-hui visited the United States, cross-strait relations became tense again. After entering the 21st century, the economic relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait became quite close, and, in 2018, when the KMT returned to power in Taiwan, cross-strait relations eased.^[6] The meeting of the top leaders across the Taiwan Strait in Singapore in 2015 was seen as a major breakthrough in the history of cross-strait relations. And since the return of the Democratic Progressive Party to power in 2016, cross-strait relations have become tense again.^[7]