The Chinese dictatorship on the other side of the Taiwan Strait is fond of claiming that Taiwan is “part of China.”
Beijing has also been busy poaching Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and demanding that the world’s airlines change Taiwan’s name to Taiwan (China).
It is essential that the government issues the following robust response: “Taiwan is not part of China.”
Unfortunately, at present, the only direct response from the government to these affronts to the nation’s sovereignty has been an article published in the Washington Post, written by an official at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.
The article emphasized that “Taiwan is not and has never been part of the People’s Republic of China [PRC].”
This is a factual statement, but it is made at too low a level and leaves room for Beijing to engage in some semantic subterfuge.
CLARITY
Taiwan is not part of any other nation’s territory be it the PRC or “China.”
There should be absolute clarity on this point.
The PRC is the official title of China and it is acknowledged as the only legal representative government of China.
From the perspective of Taiwan, China is therefore an entirely separate nation.
Many Taiwanese now say that “Taiwan is not part of China” — a phrase is born out of a fundamental recognition and consensus for “natural independence.”
Only the most rabidly pro-China, pro-unification members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) still parrot the “one China” formula, with each side having its own “interpretation” of what that China is, or “both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family” — an echo of a similar phrase used by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
LECTURES
Meanwhile, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), kicking his heels in retirement, now spends his time boring the pants off Taiwanese university students by repeating lies about the Cairo Declaration and the so-called “1992 consensus.”
Ma has also been discussing diplomatic relations between the US and China with pro-China media outlets in Taiwan, saying that “the US acknowledges that Taiwan is part of China,” which he went on to explain means that “the US does not recognize the PRC’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan, but it also does not dispute the Republic of China’s [ROC] legitimacy to rule Taiwan.”
In just a few short sentences, Ma succeeded in making his confused verbal contortions look ridiculous.
The US’ position is not that it “acknowledges that Taiwan is part of China,” but rather that it “acknowledges that the PRC’s position is that Taiwan is part of China.”
NO RECOGNITION
The US has also never “recognized” the PRC’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan and, in the same vein, has never “recognized” the ROC’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan.
Ma employed verbal gymnastics to claim that the US “does not dispute the ROC’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan,” but the truth is that the US has established a legal basis that recognizes the right of “the governing authorities on Taiwan” to rule Taiwan.
China is fishing in troubled waters.
The government must clearly assert Taiwan’s national status, the first step of which is to state without equivocation that “Taiwan is not part of China.”
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Edward Jones
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises, the largest naval exercise in the region, are aimed at deepening international collaboration and interaction while strengthening tactical capabilities and flexibility in tackling maritime crises. China was invited to participate in RIMPAC in 2014 and 2016, but it was excluded this year. The underlying reason is that Beijing’s ambitions of regional expansion and challenging the international order have raised global concern. The world has made clear its suspicions of China, and its exclusion from RIMPAC this year will bring about a sea change in years to come. The purpose of excluding China is primarily
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the