By Lee Qing-ping (Taiwan）
Tsai Ing-wen, on the morning of January 9, speech on “the national security conference”, is more change in recent years, has fully proved that Joe biden, President of the United States after taking office, a position, make the United States for cross-strait policies gradually before returning to trump the President, for more than forty years of successive American presidents to Taiwan and cross-strait policies basic position, sum up are:
1. Implement the one-China policy in accordance with The Three Joint Communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act.
2. Provide Taiwan with sufficient defensive weapons under the Taiwan Relations Act.
3. Peace in the Taiwan Straits is in line with the interests of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, and it does not advocate that either side of the Taiwan Straits change the status quo of peace in the Taiwan Straits (except for Trump’s four-year rule).
Encourage constructive dialogue between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.
The United States will not mediate differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. They should be resolved by the people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits themselves, but peacefully and the only way.
For nearly a year, on both sides into quite a serious situation, equivalent to accuracy in a state of war, but ms tsai to push responsibility to across the strait, “common machine intrusion don’t area air defense zone, all of these bad seal too peaceful and stable situation”, but she did not point out that the real reason.
Why has Ma Ying-jeou been in power for eight years (2008-2016), there is no “co-aircraft disturbance Taiwan” across the Taiwan Strait, and the two sides have entered a period of peaceful development? Cross-strait economy and trade, art, sports, navigation, and personnel exchanges, such as unprecedented warm, and signed cross-strait 23 agreements. If the reason is discussed, it is because the authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Straits at that time attached importance to and recognized the 1992 Consensus (both sides of the Taiwan Straits recognized the one-China principle, which was expressed in an oral statement but did not involve the political implications of one-China between the two sessions).
After Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, she did not recognize the “1992 Consensus” and “de-sinicized” the mainland, which is the reason for the deterioration of cross-Straits relations.
After President Trump took office in 2017, he was facing the rise of mainland China. Trump adopted a hatred and anti-China mentality and changed the original contact policy of the United States to confrontation and containment. Sanctions or containment are carried out from all levels of military, trade, technology, finance, and personnel exchanges. In the complex and realistic international environment, Taiwan has suddenly become a strategic stronghold in the conflict between the United States and China. In order to make Taiwan a forefront of the containment of the Chinese mainland, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed various Taiwan-Benefiting Bills to conduct a large number of arms sales to Taiwan. Senior U.S. officials could visit Taiwan and threatened that U.S. warships would enter Taiwan ports. The Tsai Ing-wen government has adopted a one-sided strategic thinking for US work, supporting and cooperating with Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
If the United States had cut off diplomatic ties with the” Republic of China” in the 1980s under Chiang Ching-kuo, the “Republic of China” would certainly be grateful if the United States had adopted Trump’s policy, as the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were in no contact and hostile at that time. However, after the “Wang-Koo talks” in 1993, the two sides entered a period of peaceful development. For the sake of Taiwan’s survival and development at this time, Taipei has pragmatically adopted the equidistant strategy between Beijing and Washington, and maintained peace across the Taiwan Strait is Taiwan’s core interest.
In an interview with BBC on January 12, 2020, Tsai Ing-wen orally changed the title of the “Republic of China” to “Taiwan, Republic of China”. The mainland China responded to the diplomatic communique signed by Xi Jinping, the leader of the mainland, and the President of Myanmar on January 18, 2020, stating that “Taiwan is a part of the People’s Republic of China”. This is a major change in the Chinese Communist Party’s Taiwan policy in the past 70 years. It shows the world that Taiwan is the territory of the Chinese regime. It also means that if foreign military planes, ships and troops enter Taiwan, it will be regarded as an invasion of the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China.
Although the Tsai Ing-wen administration has stated its opposition to this major change, the legal implications of cross-Straits relations after January 18, 2020, as far as the mainland is concerned, have been significantly changed.
When the Global Times, the overseas edition of the People’s Daily and the People’s Daily expressed their opinions on Taiwan in May, June and October 2020, the situation across the Taiwan Straits entered a serious situation of quasi-war.
After Trump succeeds in his presidential campaign and Biden takes office, the US policy towards the mainland will not change substantially in terms of basic strategy, but will change from comprehensive confrontation to a combination of “fierce competition” and “cooperation” between the US and China. The Biden administration called Tsai “a democratically elected representative of Taiwan” and urged her government to engage in dialogue with China, a clear sign of a shift in U.S. policy toward Taiwan.
This was also Tsai’s speech on January 9, which used the words “China, Beijing, Chinese” and also paid attention to “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”. “We are also willing to work together to facilitate meaningful dialogue in accordance with the principle of reciprocal dignity.”
It is precisely because of the readjustment of US policy towards Taiwan that Tsai Ing-wen made a tactful speech, indicating that the Tsai government cannot avoid the important responsibility of prudently maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait in the face of Biden’s new policy. Tsai Ing-wen does not need to use beautiful words in her speech. The most important test at present is how to grasp the development of international politics and plan how to face the 1992 Consensus in the future.
Peace across the Taiwan Straits is not difficult. The key is whether Tsai Ing-wen recognizes that “both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the Chinese nation” and recognizes the Chinese blood of the nation. The outcome of the dire situation across the Taiwan Strait is no longer a matter of the DPP alone. The 23 million people in Taiwan all have to bear the risk. The Tsai Ing-wen government should be cautious.
Translation by William Fei Zhongping
Author Li Qingping, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Taiwan Straits Exchange Foundation
Source:
China Review 11-02-2021
(http://hk.crntt.com/crn-webapp/touch/detail.jsp?coluid=92&kindid=0&docid=106007818)