Understanding the Chinese Government’s Position on Taiwan

Fair Dinkum, responding here in an original essay to China’s White Paper on Taiwan ++ … with underlining emphasis in blue added by The Editor, Thuppahi

On 10 August 2022, China released a white paper on Taiwan reunification. This paper sets out the history of Taiwan as an integral part of China, but it also details significant US subversive activities in Taiwan aimed at encouraging successionist movements and gives a justification for a military response to US meddling by China under specific conditions. The paper stipulates that foreign meddling into Taiwan means Beijing must retain use of force as an option. According to the white paper, Beijing prefers a peaceful reunification with Taiwan, but foreign powers meddling in Chinese domestic affairs and encouraging secessionism on the self-ruled island may make this impossible.

As expected, the extent of US meddling into Taiwan continues to go unreported in the Western media. Once again, we are witnessing the US meddling into another country – this time it happens to be China. The objective of US meddling into Taiwan is clear. It is about advancing secession movements in Taiwan in a geopolitical game to serve US national interests even though the US, as with all countries around the world, maintains “one China policy” thereby accepting that Taiwan is part of China and that the government in Beijing is the one and only legitimate government of Taiwan.

While the US, UK and Australia maintain a one China policy, their actions and behaviour are in absolute opposition to the one China policy, which is also the same policy maintained by a UN resolution. Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan was about affirming US support for Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party, who as China’s Ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, explained in an article published by the Washington Post, makes “no secret of pursuing independence in their party platform. He goes on to say: “Such a visit has openly broken America’s commitment not to develop official relations with Taiwan.”

Instead of keeping true to the one China policy and all that entails, the US and Australia continue to meddle into Taiwan to sow the seeds for independence and to obstruct the peaceful reunification of Taiwan with China. The US achieve this (with the support of Australia) by deliberately supporting secessionist movements inside Taiwan (which is a minority group), and by providing billions of dollars of military equipment to Taiwan to prevent reunification by military means. In other words, the US and Australia’s actions and behaviour on Taiwan shows these countries are actually opposed to their own one China policy.

Because the US and its Western partners are meddling into Taiwan so extensively to support secession, the recently released China White Paper reaffirms that military intervention remains an option if the US continue down the path of pushing for Taiwan to declare its independence. While the US say they are not doing this, their behaviour shows they are supporting Taiwan’s independence.

So why is the US now supporting Taiwan independence? Why is the US abandoning its One China policy?

Supporting secession and therefore independence enables Taiwan to become a vassal state of the US, which in turn, paves the way for the US to establish military bases on Taiwan which the US intend to use as a launching pad for a war against China which is already being planned in Washington. It would also enable the US to place nuclear weapons on Taiwan to be used in a first strike on China to massacre the people of China and to destroy the country. This is not hyperbole or theory, but a stated objective in plans that have already been formulated by think tanks in Washington DC, staffed by former US politicians, including some who served in the US Department of Defence, and some who served in related departments of the US government such as a former CIA deputy director. These war plans are slowly gaining traction and support in the White House, and Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is an indication of direction taken by the US government.

The plan is actually a rehash of a plan developed by the US in 1958 to place nuclear weapons in Taiwan and launch a first strike against China to completely destroy the country.

This is what succession in Taiwan means for China. As it represents a direct existential threat to China’s survival, China reserves the right to reunify Taiwan with China by military means under Article 51 of the UN charter which stipulates that “every country has the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations”. China is a member of the United Nations; Taiwan is not a member of the UN. In other words, Article 51 only applies to China, not to Taiwan.

In light of these serious issues, it is worth noting that not one Australian academic or journalist who fielded questions to China’s Ambassador to Australia at the National Press Club address in Canberra on 10 August showed any cognitive understanding of the actual realities of what China is confronting because of US-UK-Australian meddling into Taiwan. In fact, some of the questions asked at the conclusion of the address implied that Taiwan should be an independent country.

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and the recommendations now being pushed by the Washington establishment for an independent Taiwan and for nuclear weapons to be given to Taiwan also explains why China finds it necessary to conduct military exercises around Taiwan and why it is absurd for Penny Wong and Ambassador Wendy Sherman to call for China to “calm down” or Sherman’s misleading claim that: “[Xi is] the only one who is escalating the situation. Everyone else is calling for de-escalation and calm.”  One could hardly describe Washington’s push for giving Taiwan nuclear weapons and abandoning its One China Policy in favour of an independent Taiwan as a “de-escalation”. In truth, it shows the US is escalating the Taiwan crisis, provoking China to respond by preparing its military for war.

Why is Penny Wong not advising the Washington establishment to “calm down” and to stop calling for Taiwan’s independence as well as the placing nuclear weapons on Taiwan? Her words and actions suggest she is just another American puppet inside the Australian government acting for US national interests.  

What the US government would like to see is “Chinese fighting Chinese” to serve US national interests. It is the same old tied Imperialist divide and rule policy. For the US to provoke one group of Chinese to fight another group of Chinese to satisfy Washington’s political ideological wet dream is an evil act of madness. Penny Wong is Chinese and yet her actions of concealing America’s true intentions in Taiwan by creating a smokescreen by calling on China to “calm down” helps to pave the way for Chinese to fight Chinese. It’s all about divide and rule – which the West have practiced for the past 500 years. The solution is for Washington to stop supporting Taiwan independence and to stop advocating for nuclear weapons to be given to Taiwan. Maybe then China will “calm down”.

 China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on 10 August 2022.

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Fair Dinkum’s Subsequent EMBELLISHMENTS, 12 aUGUST 2022

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Qin Gang. Chinese ambassador: Why China objects to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The Washington Post, 4 August 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/04/china-ambassador-op-ed-pelosi-taiwan-visit/

David C. Gompert, Astrid Stuth Cevallos, Cristina L. Garafola. War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable. Rand. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1140.html

Peter Hartcher. ‘A lot more to play out’: China to keep up pressure on Taiwan. The Age, 10 August 2022. https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/a-lot-more-to-play-out-china-to-keep-up-pressure-on-taiwan-20220809-p5b8jr.html

Alex Littlefield and Adam Lowther. Would a nuclear-armed Taiwan deter China? The Strategist, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 24 December 2020. https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/would-a-nuclear-armed-taiwan-deter-china/

Navy transits Taiwan Strait as Esper in Taipei calls for end to ‘One China’ policy, Stars and Stripes, 20 July 2022. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2022-07-20/taiwan-esper-one-china-policy-6707974.html

Benjamin Norton. US threatens war on China over Taiwan – with nuclear implications. Multipolarista, 3 August 2022. https://multipolarista.substack.com/p/us-war-china-taiwan-nuclear#details

Reuters. “U.S. Navy deploys four warships east of Taiwan as Pelosi heads to Taipei, 2 August 2022.” https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-navy-deploys-four-warships-east-taiwan-pelosi-heads-taipei-2022-08-02/

“To avoid Ukraine’s fate, Taiwan needs nuclear missiles — now, “Boston Globe, 2 March 2022. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/02/opinion/avoid-ukraines-fate-taiwan-needs-nuclear-missiles-now/

United Nations Charter, Chapter 7, Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/chapter-7

Ben Westcott.:”US military considered using nuclear weapons against China in 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis, leaked documents show.” CNN, 24 May 2021. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/24/china/us-china-taiwan-1958-nuclear-intl-hnk/index.html

White Paper: The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era-Xinhua, 10 August 2022. https://english.news.cn/20220810/df9d3b8702154b34bbf1d451b99bf64a/c.html

Xiao Qian (China’s Ambassador to Australia) address to the National Press Club, Canberra, 10 August 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXeHRtmWJ68

United States Taiwan Defense Command (USTDC). https://army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=PublicUnit&type=Unit&ID=55796

++ As the pseudonym indicates “Fair Dinkum” resides in Australia. He is, apparently, proficient in Chinese. His readings render him vulnerable to the Australian security agencies and any dinkie-die nutcase  — hence his efforts to hide his identity. 

Note that he provides bibliographical support for his views. Such aids are alien to journalist practice — while the narrow column format of newspapers enforce short paragraphs — in contrast to personnel, like Thuppahi, who have been nourished in the academic world and its presentational formats. 

MOREOVER in response to the Chinese Government’s WHITE PAPER on Taiwan, “Fair Dinkum” presented these serial set of comments:

ONE: “Once again, we are witnessing how US meddling into other countries, on this occasion China, is used to drive succession movements in a geopolitical game to serve US national interests, even when the US and all countries around the world maintain a “one China policy” thereby agreeing that Taiwan is part of China; and that the government in Beijing is the legitimate government of Taiwan.