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When U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in early August, the impact resonated across the world, including with Taiwanese and Chinese students at Syracuse University.

The visit from Pelosi, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the island in 25 years, stoked long-running tensions between China, Taiwan and the United States. Though Taiwan has historically governed itself and maintains official and unofficial diplomatic relationships with other countries, including the United States, China views the island as part of its territory.

Taiwanese and Chinese international students at SU who watched the visit unfold from abroad remember waiting anxiously for the fallout, fearing the tensions raised might escalate to military conflict — putting their friends and family in danger.

The Daily Orange spoke with four SU students from Taiwan and China about how they experienced Pelosi’s visit and China’s response.

Joyce Chen

Joyce Chen’s phone rang the night when Pelosi’s flight landed in Taiwan. She picked it up to see a text from her Chinese friend wondering what might happen.

Chen, a senior in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, has connections to both sides of the conflict. She was born in Taiwan but spent her childhood in China, and her family moved back to Taiwan after she left for college. Because of COVID-19, her family hasn’t had a chance to travel back to China since Aug. 2019.

From a young age, Chen knew about the tensions between Taiwan and China and the uncertainty that came with them.

With so many players involved, Chen said it’s difficult to predict how the tensions will play out.

“I’m very concerned for my parents, for my family,” Chen said. “But at the same time, there’s nothing I can do that can be of any immediate help.”

Chen also said she believes that media bias plays a role in how people in both China and Taiwan perceive the conflict.

“There’s also a lot of those voices that aren’t really heard online, so I think both (Taiwanese and Chinese) media are super biased,” Chen said.

Simba Chen

Simba Chen, a sophomore in Newhouse, was scrolling through WeChat Moments, a social networking function within the popular Chinese app WeChat, when the news broke that Pelosi was visiting Taiwan.

He remembers other Chinese social media users closely following Pelosi’s flight as it approached the island.

“I have never seen this many people paying attention to where a flight is going,” Chen, an advertising major from Taiwan, said in Mandarin.

Two days after Pelosi’s visit, China launched 11 ballistic missiles into Taiwanese airspace and waters as part of larger military drills.

The show of force was especially concerning for Chen, who is subject to Taiwan’s mandatory military service requirement and could be called on to fight if the conflict escalates.

As a male Taiwanese citizen living in another country, he was able to postpone his service, but he said he’s still scared.

“You don’t know what the government is going to do. Your name is on a list, you’re going to get called,” Chen said. “As a Taiwanese who is technically in the reserves, (I) have to think ahead for that.”

Joshua Tarn

Joshua Tarn, a senior architecture student from Taiwan, worries about the wellbeing of his friends and family back home. If a war breaks out, he said, any Taiwanese family will be lucky to not lose someone.

“The citizens are always the victims,” Tarn said.

Tarn remembers China and Taiwan having a less contentious relationship during the previous Taiwanese administration, and he hopes the current tensions subside soon.

Taiwan and China don’t have to be the same country, Tarn said, and they also don’t have to be enemies.

Megan Thompson | Digital Design Director

Ni Dong

Ni Dong, a sophomore and a selected studies in education major from China, said she and other Chinese students at SU are acutely aware of the recent tensions with Taiwan, despite the country’s media censorship apparatus — colloquially known as the “Great Firewall.”

Dong said Chinese and Taiwanese culture has diverged, and he feels it will be difficult to resolve the conflict between the two anytime soon.

“This is a historical problem, and I don’t think it can be fixed in our generation,” Dong said. “It’s just because we grow up learning from different textbooks, that is the reason why we have different views.”

Published on September 4, 2022 at 11:57 pm

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