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Wed, August 10, 2022
By Yew Lun Tian
BEIJING (Reuters) -China has withdrawn a promise not to send troops or administrators to Taiwan if it takes control of the island, an official document showed on Wednesday, signalling a decision by President Xi Jinping to grant less autonomy than previously offered.
China's white paper on its position on self-ruled Taiwan follows days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises near the island, which Beijing claims as its territory, in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit last week.
China had said in two previous white papers on Taiwan, in 1993 and 2000, that it "will not send troops or administrative personnel to be based in Taiwan" after achieving what Beijing terms "reunification".
That line, meant to assure Taiwan it would enjoy autonomy after becoming a special administrative region of China, did not appear in the latest white paper.
China's ruling Communist Party had proposed that Taiwan could return to its rule under a "one country, two systems" model, similar to the formula under which the former British colony of Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
That would offer some autonomy to democratically ruled Taiwan to partially preserve its social and political systems.
All mainstream Taiwanese political parties have rejected the "one country, two systems" proposal and it enjoys almost no public support according to opinion polls. Taiwan's government says only the island's people can decide their future.
A line in the 2000 white paper that said "anything can be negotiated" as long as Taiwan accepts that there is only one China and does not seek independence, is also missing from the latest white paper.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council condemned the white paper, saying it was "full of lies of wishful thinking and disregarded the facts" and that the Republic of China - Taiwan's official name - was a sovereign state.
"Only Taiwan's 23 million people have the right to decide on the future of Taiwan, and they will never accept an outcome set by an autocratic regime."
The updated white paper is called "The Taiwan Question and China's Reunification in the New Era". The "new era" is a term commonly associated with Xi's rule. Xi is expected to secure a third term at a Communist Party congress later this year.
Taiwan has lived under the threat of Chinese invasion since 1949, when the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island after Mao Zedong's Communist Party won a civil war.
(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by Robert Birsel and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Xi Jinping may use Pelosi's visit to Taiwan to 'create a new normal': Expert
Tensions in the Taiwan Strait are escalating following Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week. China’s military conducted a series of military drills over the weekend – 66 planes and 14 warships were spotted around the island on Sunday, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.
Susan Shirk, UC San Diego Researcher Professor and 21st Century China Center Chair, described the political and social implications of Speaker Pelosi’s visit.
“It’s quite possible that Xi Jinping has taken advantage of the Pelosi visit to mobilize support for himself and to kind of create a new normal in which Chinese military planes and ships and other gray zones, even Coast Guard vessels, will be pressing Taiwan,” Shirk told Yahoo Finance Live.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has expressed heavy opposition to the Speaker’s visit. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Pelosi’s actions a violation of the One-China principle and affirmed there was “no room” for Taiwan independence. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China also imposed sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family members on Friday.
These measures come ahead of President Xi’s unprecedented third term and the 20th National Congress of the CCP this November. According to Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) research fellow David Sacks, Xi does not want to risk looking weak, which is why China is taking a harsh stance on Pelosi’s visit.
“This is about demonstrating the People’s Liberation Army’s capabilities to put a blockade around Taiwan, squeeze Taiwan, until it agrees to, you know, potentially what they would like to see is until it agrees to reintegrate with the mainland,” Shirk added.
Shirk warns that some multinational firms operating in Asia could experience economic blowback in the future.
“Chinese consumers are much more nationalistic, so consumer-facing businesses really do have to make a choice here. If the China market is important to them, they have to be sensitive to these political considerations and how they talk about Taiwan,” Shirk said.
Candybar maker Mars Wrigley issued an apology to China on Friday for implying Taiwan was a country. Moreover, Chinese companies have distanced themselves from the Pelosi controversy for fear of retaliation from the Chinese government.
Shirk also noted that Pelosi’s visit put Democrats in a tough position ahead of the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election.
“It was [a] very odd thing for a Democratic Speaker of the House to put a Democratic President, President Biden, in an extraordinarily difficult position by deciding to go to Taiwan now. The president didn’t have complete control over the Speaker’s decisions, of course, and I think was reluctant to try to constrain her because there are many other politicians who would criticize the Biden administration for caving in to China. So it's certainly not good for the Democratic prospects in the mid-term or in 2024."
Biden and his party have an uphill battle to fight. Recent CBS News/YouGov polling data show Democrats losing control in the House, and potentially the Senate this fall. The president’s approval rating has also plummeted to 39.6%, and a new CNN poll indicated that 75% of Democrats support nominating someone other than Biden for the 2024 presidential bid.
Yaseen Shah is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @yaseennshah22
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