There is a red flag or red line in the free world that governs proper and respectable conduct by people, governments and nations. The South China Sea is international water, through which more than 70 percent of world shipping, US$3.37 trillion last year, passes.
Freedom of passage in international waters cannot be disturbed or interrupted. There is a “status quo” honored by the free world and the UN.
As early as 2009, China has increased construction of artificial islands and laid claim to 1,295 hectares of land and 90 percent of the South China Sea as its territory.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told US President Donald Trump when he visited the US last year that the islands were being built for peaceful purposes, from marine aid to scientific research.
Today, it is clear that the islands feature military-length airstrips, anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons and naval guns. Cuarteron Reef (Huayang Reef, 華陽礁) has a new high-frequency, early warning facility to detect aircraft, a development not consistent with peaceful missions.
Fairfax Media has reported that Vanuatu agreed to a Chinese request to establish a military base there.
China has ignored and clearly stepped on the red line and crossed it.
What is the intention of its military expansion?
To safeguard law and order and ensure that the South China Sea remains a free international waterway, the US has increased freedom of navigation exercises, with its naval vessels sailing within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of Chinese-controlled islands in the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), territories the Chinese military seized from Vietnam in the 1970s.
In response, China dispatched warships to drive the US ships away.
In May, China had multiple bombers, such as H-6Ks, conduct take-off and landing exercises on islands and reefs in the South China Sea to improve its ability to “reach all territory and conduct strikes in all directions.”
The exponentially mounting tensions in the South China Sea were on full display recently when a US Navy ship almost collided with a Chinese destroyer, missing it by a mere 14m.
There is no question that China under Xi is ready and dares to challenge US vessels’ presence in the free, international South China Sea.
Who is challenging and who is defending free passage in the international waterway? China has crossed the red line.
On Jan. 6, China unilaterally opened three new commercial aviation corridors over the Taiwan Strait and increased the use of the M503 route, threatening Taiwan’s security and flight safety.
Chinese military planes could be disguised as commercial aircraft, and endanger the safety of flights to and from Taiwan’s Kinmen and Matsu islands.
Twenty years ago, London and Beijing announced the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which China promised to govern Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems” framework and promised to give Hong Kong “a high degree of autonomy.”
However, the Basic Law introduced Beijing’s tighter grip soon afterward, as Hong Kong’s chief executives were to be appointed by Beijing. In the past few months, China has cracked down on pro-democracy movements and jailed four prominent student leaders in Hong Kong. China clearly does not keep its promises to the British government of letting Kong Hong enjoy its autonomy, free from China’s direct rule for 50 years. China has changed the “status quo.”
Beijing maintains that Taiwan is part of China, but it has never ruled Taiwan. The San Francisco Peace Treaty, in which Japan surrendered, does not give Taiwan to China.
Taiwan’s international isolation is long-standing. Beijing has never loosened its grip and has increased massive financial aid to convince Senegal, the Dominican Republic, San Tome and Principe, Burkina Faso, Panama and El Salvador to cut ties with Taipei.
As for international sports events, the East Asian Olympic Committee has revoked Taichung’s right to host the East Asian Youth Games next year because “some groups on the island push forward a referendum that proposes that when the island participates in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, it does so under the proper name, Taiwan, not ‘Chinese Taipei.’”
Most observers feel that China was behind the move. The committee chairperson is Chinese. The countries on the committee have no diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. Who is the aggressor? China has crossed the red line.
China’s massive financial power has allowed its Belt and Road Initiative to succeed. In July last year, China opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti. It is in negotiations with Pakistan to establish an additional base at or near Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
This is reminiscent of US-Soviet competition for influence during the Cold War and will likely grow. Is China showing its military superiority and wanting to challenge the US in defending the free world?
Former US president George W. Bush had called former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) a “troublemaker” when Chen declared that Taiwan and China are “one country on either side” of the Taiwan Strait.
Cross-strait relations refer to two political entities separated by the Taiwan Strait in the west Pacific Ocean.
It is a fact that Taiwan is a flourishing democratic country. China is a one-party, authoritarian society. Both have existed independently for more than 50 years. That is more than two generations. It is sacred and cannot be changed without the consent of Taiwanese.
The free world and the US have turned their heads to allow China’s increasingly repressive measures against its own people: the Tiananmen Massacre against students; long-festering issues such as the repression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang; and horrific state-sanctioned practices of harvesting organs from thousands of political prisoners and Falun Gong members while they are still alive.
As many as 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims have been forced into “re-education camps.” Camps are for detainees to renounce their religion and culture while swearing loyalty to Xi and the Chinese Communist Party. China has crossed the red line of human rights honored by the free world and the UN.
China in 1971 replaced the Republic of China and became one of the five permanent members on the UN Security Council. China knows where the red flags and the red lines are.
US President Donald Trump and his team of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US National Security Adviser John Bolton have been alarmed by the “show of force” by Xi and his increasing irrational oppressive measures to rein in dissent in Hong Kong and against ethnic minorities in China.
Trump has expanded cooperation in the west Pacific to include India to build a pan-Indian Pacific alliance. It is reminiscent of the Cold War policy to contain the former Soviet Union.
Now the free world under the leadership of the US has woken up to the reality that appeasing and helping China economically and politically over the past 50 years in the hope that it would help change its political system has failed.
Taiwan and its people have suffered and endured enough from China. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has exercised restraint and tolerance against the continued and mounting diplomatic and economic pressure from China.
China under Xi clearly has crossed the red line too many times. It has increased the number of warcraft circling Taiwan and has amassed more missiles aimed at the nation.
Taiwanese are peace-loving and have never done anything to provoke China. China is the aggressor and troublemaker, not Taiwan.
The nation asks the free world why Taiwanese, who worship, honor and cherish the same free society and democratic values, continue to suffer the bullying behavior from China.
Taiwanese beseech the US, the UK, France, Germany and Japan to open their arms to embrace and recognize Taiwan as an independent nation and help it join the UN.
Taiwan will and always will abide by the red lines.
Cheng Tien-chu is a former president of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association.
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