The Tribune

By DAI QINGLI

Chinese ambassador to The Bahamas

THROUGHOUT China’s history, there has been a great yearning for unity and stability among the Chinese people. China had seen some of its best times, as a united, powerful and prosperous country leading the world in many ways. And among its worst nightmares were those internecine wars and conflicts inflicting destruction and misery upon its own people and inviting foreign aggression.

Although China still has territorial and maritime disputes in its West and in the South China Sea, Taiwan is by far the deepest and most visible scar on the collective psyche of the Chinese nation.

Having Taiwan reunited with the motherland is the shared will and aspiration of the 1.4 billion Chinese people. It is seen as the ultimate hallmark of China’s rejuvenation. The Chinese government and people will go any length and pay any price to resolve the Taiwan issue and realise the complete reunification of the motherland.

NARROW STRAIT

Having lost the civil war with the Communists in 1949, the Kuomintang (Nationalists) led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan with the avowed goal of retaking the mainland. The Chiang regime prohibited any form of exchanges across the Taiwan Strait. A few months before his death, Chiang’s son, who succeeded his father, finally agreed to allow for family reunions and visits between relatives across the Taiwan Strait. The visits, which started as a trickle at the end of 1987, quickly burst open the floodgates of exchanges between the Chinese across the Taiwan Strait.

In 1992, cross-Strait relations hit a milestone when the two sides reached the ‘1992 Consensus’, which stated that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China and will work together toward national reunification”.

The 1992 Consensus, serving as the anchor of cross-Strait ties, has enabled institutionalised consultations and negotiations as well as expanded exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, culminating in the first meeting and direct dialogue between President Xi Jinping and leader of Taiwan, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, in 2015 in Singapore.

Warming ties between the two sideshave benefited both. The volume of cross- Strait trade, which was only US$46m in 1978, jumped to over US$328 billion in 2021, up more than 7,000 times. The mainland has been Taiwan’s largest export market for the past 21 years and the largest destination for its off-island investment. In 1987 fewer than 50,000 visits were made between the two sides; by 2019 this number had soared to about nine million.

WIDENING DIVIDE

Along with burgeoning economic and people-to-people ties, cross-Strait relations have seen regular flare-ups of tension in the past few decades.

For nearly forty years after 1949 when Taiwan was ruled by the Chiangs, the Taiwan authorities, insisting that they should remain the legitimate government for the whole of China, opposed ‘two Chinas’ and ‘Taiwan independence’ just like the mainland.

Things started to change after 1988 when Lee Teng-hui became the leader of Taiwan. Initially paying lip service to one China, his true colours as a separatist-in-chief on Taiwan was soon exposed. He started to trumpet that “Taiwan is already a state with independent sovereignty”. He went on to claim in 1999 that cross- Strait relations were “special state-to-state relations”.

For years, Lee supported and emboldened a separatist movement and encouraged the propagation of the “Taiwan independence” ideology.

Lee’s unscrupulous promotion of secession eventually led to the election of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a previously marginal political force, whose platform calls for independence, in 2000.

DPP leader Chen Shui-bian created his own term “one country on each side” (of the Taiwan Strait) in 2002. Chen spared no efforts in fabricating a legal basis for “Taiwan independence” by terminating the “National Unification Commission” and the “National Unification Program” and attempting to revise Taiwan’s “constitution” based on one-China.

In 2016, the DPP came back to power under Tsai Ing-wen, who continued the party’s “salami tactic” of pursuing “incremental independence”. Tsai tried to contrive a separate cultural identity for the Taiwanese, shifted Chinese history into the section about East Asian history in textbooks and tried to remove “Chinese unification” from Taiwan’s laws.

A consistent theme of DPP’s rule was to deny and distort one China, collude with external forces to create “one China, one Taiwan” in the international community, and prepare for resisting reunification by force through persistent weapons procurement.

ALL OPTIONS ON THE TABLE

Peaceful reunification has always been the preferred option for the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government in resolving the Taiwan question. China will make utmost efforts in utmost sincerity to strive for this prospect.

Yet the growing dangers of secession left China with no choice but to maintain credible deterrence against separatist adventurism and external interference.

The Anti-Secession Law promulgated in 2005 stipulates: “In the event that the ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist forces should act under any name or by any means to cause the fact of Taiwan’s secession from China, or that major incidents entailing Taiwan’s secession from China should occur, or that possibilities for a peaceful reunification should be completely exhausted, the state shall employ non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

In no way does this law target the people on Taiwan. Use of force would only be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances.

In recent decades, whenever the separatist forces and their American backers tried to push the envelope by provoking confrontation, China would react with firm actions to show its resolve and capabilities of upholding sovereignty and territorial integrity.

No matter whether it was Lee Teng-hui making a “private” visit to the US in June 1995 or US House Speaker insisting on visiting Taiwan in August 2022, the mainland would conduct large scale military exercises in the Taiwan Strait and adjacent waters. The only difference is China’s growing capabilities to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

ONE CHINA

Following Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, UN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated that the UN abides by the one- China policy and UNGA Resolution 2758, which has become an overwhelming consensus and basic norm governing international relations.

On the basis of one China, the Chinese government has shown flexibility in Taiwan’s participation in some inter-governmental international organizations in appropriate ways. For example, Taiwan has no difficulty participating in the Asian Development Bank, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the International Olympic Committee in the names of “ Taipei, China” and “Chinese Taipei.”

And on the basis of one China, the Chinese government facilitated non-governmental economic and cultural contacts between Taiwan and foreign countries.

As a result, every year, millions of Taiwanese go abroad for travel, business or study, as well as for academic, cultural or sports exchanges. In 2021, Taiwan ranked as the 16thlargest trader in the world.

During the pandemic, for example, the Chinese Government has given Taiwan 400 updates, and approved 47 visits by public health experts from Taiwan to 44 WHO technical activities over the past year. Taiwan received multiple notifications on COVID-19 from the WHO Secretariat.

Chinese embassies and consulates abroad extend the same consular protection to Taiwan compatriots, particularly in times of war or natural disasters.

At the same time, the Taiwan authorities’ attempts to enlarge their “international space” through “pragmatic diplomacy” will continue to be firmly opposed by China, as their true intention is to create “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.”

THE WAY TO GO

Peaceful reunification and “one country, two systems” will remain the Chinese government’s basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question.

The basic propositions of one country, two systems are as follows. First, there is only one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. One Country is the precondition and basis for two systems; Two systems is subordinate to and derived from one country; The two are inseparable under the one-China principle.

Second, after peaceful reunification, Taiwan may continue its current social system and enjoy a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the law. The two social systems will co-exist and develop side by side for a long time to come.

Third, provided that China’s sovereignty, security and development interests are safeguarded, Taiwan after reunification will enjoy a high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region. Taiwan’s social system and its way of life will be fully respected, and the private property, religious beliefs, and lawful rights and interests of the people on Taiwan will be fully protected.

Foreign countries can continue to develop economic and cultural relations with Taiwan. With the approval of the central government of China, they may set up consulates or other official and quasi-official institutions in Taiwan, international organisations and agencies may establish offices on Taiwan.

In the 1920s, a well-known Chinese scholar wrote a series of seven poems, likening China to a mother and the seven cities or islands that were lost to foreign aggressors to her seven sons. In each of the poems, a son would express his sufferings due to forced separation from his beloved mother. All the poems ended with the same line, “O Mother, I must come back to you.”

By now six of the seven sons have long been reunited with their mother. Taiwan as the seventh wanderer will come back, too, one day, hopefully in the not too distant future.

• This is the second of three articles by Chinese ambassador Dai Qingli. See Insight on Monday for the final article.