Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published:August03,2022
By Gerald Mbanda
Demonstrators protest against Pelosi’s visit outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in Taipei. Photograph: Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
The visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, the US House of Representatives on Tuesday August 2, was in total violation of China’s sovereignty and a breach of international law and order, and must be condemned by the international community. Despite China’s protest, the US administration acted as bullies, sending fighter jets and war ships in the Taiwan straits an act of provocation that could lead to war between the two countries. The visit by Pelosi further violates the One-China Principle.
By Pelosi visiting Taiwan, the US has crossed the red line deliberately creating tension and undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits. What is clear is that the US is visibly spitting in the face of China to spark a war, knowing very well that Taiwan is a territory of China. In simple terms, the visit by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan was an invasion of China by the US, which worsens the already strained bilateral relations.
The Chinese Ministry of foreign affairs released a statement condemning Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. “The Taiwan question is the most important and most sensitive issue at the very heart of China-U.S. relations. The Taiwan Strait is facing a new round of tensions and severe challenges, and the fundamental cause is the repeated moves by the Taiwan authorities and the United States to change the status quo. The Taiwan authorities have kept seeking U.S. support for their independence agenda. They refuse to recognize the 1992 Consensus, go all out to push forward “de-sinicization”, and promote “incremental independence”. The United States, for its part, has been attempting to use Taiwan to contain China. It constantly distorts, obscures and hollows out the one-China principle, steps up its official exchanges with Taiwan, and emboldens “Taiwan independence” separatist activities. These moves, like playing with fire, are extremely dangerous. Those who play with fire will perish by it,” reads part of the statement.
The US and China are the largest economies in the world, as well as superpowers in terms of military capabilities and therefore, must set a good example to the rest of the world in terms of mutual respect and peaceful co-existence. They benefit by cooperation rather than confrontation, as war mongering could be disastrous, with far reaching consequences to the whole world. When the US signed the China-US Joint Communiqué in 1979, on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations, it consequently agreed to abide the one-China policy, meaning that the US Government would have no official dealings with the Taiwan region. However, the behavior of Washington over the years has shown that what they agreed to do only remained on paper and words, but not in action and practice.
When the Chinese president Xi Jinping spoke with the US president Joe Biden on Thursday last week, among the issues discussed included Taiwan, and the US president was quoted by media as having said that, “the U.S. military did not think it was a good idea for the Speaker to visit Taiwan at this time.” Thomas L. Friedman, a New York Times Columnist wrote in an opinion article on August 1, that, “I have a lot of respect for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But if she does go ahead with a visit to Taiwan this week, against President Biden’s wishes, she will be doing something that is utterly reckless, dangerous and irresponsible.” Indeed, Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was reckless because of the likeliness of igniting a major conflict. However, analysts do not believe that president Biden really meant what he said. This is the usual hypocritical double language by the US administration on the question of Taiwan. If Biden is the president and in charge of US foreign policy, he has all the powers to stop Pelosi from creating trouble with China. Biden did not stop Pelosi, an indication that her visit is an agreed upon mission, but giving a different impression to hoodwink the world outside.
In the New York Times article, Thomas Friedman further observed that, “nothing good will come of it {Pelosi’s visit}. Taiwan will not be more secure or more prosperous as a result of this purely symbolic visit, and a lot of bad things could happen. These include a Chinese military response that could result in the U.S. being plunged into indirect conflicts with a nuclear-armed Russia and a nuclear-armed China at the same time.”
The Taiwan question is an internal historical issue that China has been dealing with and continues to deal with it, with an ultimate goal of reunification of Taiwan and mainland China. BY the US administration doing the contrary and support the breakaway of Taiwan, “Taiwan independence,” is a ploy to contain China. The world is watching as the US provocatively crosses the red line and wants to use Taiwan as its base to destabilize and weaken China, the same way US and NATO have used Ukraine to provoke a war with the aim of destabilizing Russia. The international community must condemn acts of aggression by the US against China which undermine world peace and stability, as well as breaching international law and order.
Gerald Mbanda is a Researcher and publisher on China and Africa Cooperation.
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