Update 14 Aug 2022: China releases white paper on Taiwan question, reunification in new era
The white paper was released to reiterate the fact that Taiwan is part of China, to demonstrate the resolve of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people and their commitment to national reunification, and to emphasize the position and policies of the CPC and the Chinese government in the new era. Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times. This statement has a sound basis in history and jurisprudence, according to the white paper. The UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 is a political document encapsulating the one-China principle whose legal authority leaves no room for doubt and has been acknowledged worldwide, says the white paper.
The one-China principle represents the universal consensus of the international community; it is consistent with the basic norms of international relations, says the white paper. "We are one China, and Taiwan is part of China. This is an indisputable fact supported by history and the law. Taiwan has never been a state; its status as part of China is unalterable," says the white paper.
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As Pelosi’s Taiwan visit rocks US-China ties, worse may be in store
US-China relations are at their lowest point in half a century but worse may be in store before a reset seems possible, diplomatic observers said.
This comes as tensions continue to escalate over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a violation of its sovereignty, with neither side wanting to be seen as backing down. Beijing, which repeatedly warned against the visit, has responded with severe condemnation and days of live-fire drills around Taiwan, including dozens of incursions over the median line in the Taiwan Strait, a de facto boundary that it had hitherto honoured.
Washington, meanwhile, has pledged to continue Taiwan Strait transits and freedom of navigation operations in the region, where it has prolonged the deployment of its USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group.
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Taiwan has lost ground because of Pelosi's visit
China's People's Liberation Army launches missiles toward Taiwan on Aug. 4: Plans for these exercises needed some sort of provocation. (Handout photo form PLA's Eastern Theater Command) © Reuters
Plans for these exercises, which clearly had been prepared and on the shelf for some time, needed some sort of provocation to justify putting them into action. Pelosi's poorly conceived stopover provided exactly this. During the initial four days of PLA live-fire exercises in six areas around Taiwan's perimeter, 41 Chinese vessels and 110 aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to the island's defense ministry. Eleven ballistic missiles were fired into waters north, east and south of Taiwan. The drills were due to end on Aug. 7, but the next day, the PLA announced it would continue to conduct live-fire combat joint exercises and training in the waters and airspace around Taiwan before finally calling them to an end on Aug. 10.
The exercises serve valuable military purposes for the PLA: increasing preparedness, improving interoperability among air and sea forces and providing lessons for future operations across the Taiwan Strait. They also serve a strategic purpose by effectively obliterating the median line across the Taiwan Strait that served as an unofficial buffer zone between the two militaries for decades. The status quo has been altered and in a way unfavorable to Taiwan. It is quite likely that the PLA will now operate with greater frequency and intensity across the median line. This will impose continued stress on Taiwan's military readiness and preparedness and put sustained psychological pressure on Taiwan's leadership and civilian population.
"Who Cares?": Nancy Pelosi Laughs Off Chinese Sanctions Over Taiwan
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that China is trying to establish sort of a new normal and we just can't let that happen
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday the United States could not allow China to normalize the new level of pressure on Taiwan it asserted with days of military drills following her visit to the Chinese-claimed island. "What we saw with China is that they were trying to establish sort of a new normal. And we just can't let that happen," Pelosi told a news conference with four other Democratic House members who accompanied her on the trip to Asia.
China said on Wednesday it had "completed various tasks" around Taiwan, but will continue regular patrols, potentially signaling an end to days of war games while keeping up pressure on the self-ruled island. Furious at the visit to Taipei last week by Pelosi, a vocal critic of China for decades who stands second in line of succession for the U.S. presidency, China had extended its largest-ever exercises around the self-ruled island it claims as its own beyond the four days originally scheduled.
"We went there to praise Taiwan. We went there to show our friendship, to say China cannot isolate Taiwan," Pelosi said. She laughed when asked about China's announcement that it was sanctioning her and her immediate family. "Who cares?" Pelosi said. "That is incidental to me, of no relevance whatsoever."
Tsai Ing-wen's inglorious role in Pelosi's Taiwan show
Tsai Ing-wen listens during a press conference in Taipei, China's Taiwan, January 5, 2019 / CFP
On August 3, Tsai Ing-wen, the regional leader of Taiwan, awarded a medal "wholeheartedly" to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who just blatantly referred to Taiwan as a "democratic country" during her eye-catching Taiwan visit, for the latter's "firm and lasting support." Such a political farce illustrated how eager and desperate the secessionist politicians in Taiwan, represented by Tsai, are in seeking independence by clinging to the United States. Yet flattering and pandering can hardly help more than making Taiwan a filmset for irresponsible U.S. politicians to gain publicity, or a pawn to the U.S. for its ill-fated strategy to contain China.
On August 3, Tsai Ing-wen, the regional leader of Taiwan, awarded a medal "wholeheartedly" to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who just blatantly referred to Taiwan as a "democratic country" during her eye-catching Taiwan visit, for the latter's "firm and lasting support." Such a political farce illustrated how eager and desperate the secessionist politicians in Taiwan, represented by Tsai, are in seeking independence by clinging to the United States. Yet flattering and pandering can hardly help more than making Taiwan a filmset for irresponsible U.S. politicians to gain publicity, or a pawn to the U.S. for its ill-fated strategy to contain China.
There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. Any secessionist attempts to separate Taiwan from China is not only illegal, but also not allowed by 1.4 billion Chinese people, and thus doomed to fail. Somehow, such a status quo is often challenged by some U.S. politicians, who see China as a threat to the hegemony and priority of the U.S. due to China's impressive development in recent decades, and they regard the Taiwan question as a convenient instrument to disrupt China's rejuvenation by challenging its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Meanwhile, they also wish to squeeze as much resource as possible from the authority in Taiwan, in order to "make the U.S. great again." Politicians like Pelosi care more about interests flowing into their own pockets with massive purchase orders of U.S. military equipment and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) contribution to the U.S. semi-conductor industry, as well as the votes they may gain from their constituents for "challenging China," rather than the commitment made by the U.S. in 1979 of not seeking official relations with Taiwan in the China-U.S. joint communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations. What they choose to neglect is the actual welfare of 23 million people living on Taiwan Island, and the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. With a flip-flopping attitude toward its commitment to the one-China policy, it is likely to be a game for the U.S. to "win and take all."
US urged to stop attempting to contain China with Taiwan
China will resolutely make a fightback each time the United States makes a serious provocation that encroaches upon China's sovereignty and interferes in China's internal affairs, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday. "China will never allow its national sovereignty and territorial integrity to be wantonly trampled upon and undermined," spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing, urging the United States to stop its attempt to contain China by using Taiwan.
Wang pointed out Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi's visit to China's Taiwan region is a major political provocation which upgrades exchanges between the United States and Taiwan. Pelosi's visit violated relevant commitments by the U.S. side in the China-U.S. Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations, the one-China principle widely accepted by the international community and confirmed in the UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and the principle in international law of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, which is enshrined in the UN Charter, he said.
Disregarding China's dissuasion and warnings concerning Pelosi's visit, the United States has chosen to pursue the wrong course of action, Wang said, noting that it is the United States, not China, who has reneged on commitments. "It is the United States that infringed upon China's sovereignty, not China violating the sovereignty of the United States. It is the United States who connived at and supported 'Taiwan independence' separatist activities, not China conniving at and supporting separatist activities in the United States," Wang added.
Rising tensions: China suspends relations with US on climate and other issues
CNN's Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr explains China's actions following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
Chinese and Taiwanese warships eye each other as drills due to end
Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan Island in Fujian province, one of mainland China's closest points to Taiwan, on Aug 4, 2022. (Photo: AFP/Hector Retamal)
Chinese and Taiwanese warships played high-seas "cat and mouse" on Sunday (Aug 7) ahead of the scheduled end of four days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises launched in reaction to a visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi's visit last week to the self-ruled island infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over the island's capital for the first time and the cutting of communication links with the United States. About 10 warships each from China and Taiwan sailed at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The island's defence ministry said in a release multiple Chinese military ships, aircraft, and drones were simulating attacks on the island and its navy. It said it had sent aircraft and ships to react "appropriately".
As Chinese forces "pressed" the line, as they did on Saturday, the Taiwan side stayed close to monitor and, where possible, deny the Chinese the ability to cross, the person said. "The two sides are showing restraint", the person said, describing the manoeuvres as high seas "cat and mouse".
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Pelosi’s ‘reckless’ Taiwan visit deepens US-China rupture – why did she go?
Nancy Pelosi in Tokyo following her visit to Taiwan. Her visit may have hurt the very cause she was seeking to promote. Photograph: Franck Robichon / EPA
The speaker insisted she was promoting democracy but critics suggest a last hurrah before she loses the gavel in November. Roy Blunt lived up to his surname when he said this week: “So I’m about to use four words in a row that I haven’t used in this way before, and those four words are: ‘Speaker Pelosi was right.’” The Republican senator was praising Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the first by a speaker of the US House of Representatives in a quarter of a century.
But not everyone was so sure. In poking the hornets’ nest and enraging China, which claims the self-governing island as its territory, Pelosi deepened a rupture between the world’s two most powerful countries – and may have hurt the very cause she was seeking to promote. On Thursday, China fired multiple missiles into waters surrounding Taiwan and began a series of huge military drills around the island; the White House summoned China’s ambassador, Qin Gang, to protest. On Friday, China said it was ending cooperation with the US on key issues including the climate crisis, anti-drug efforts and military talks.
It was yet another moment of peril in a world already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and mass food shortages. So why did Pelosi go? The speaker is a fervent defender of Taiwan and critic of China’s human rights abuses. During the visit, she pointed to a global struggle between autocracy and democracy, a favourite theme of Joe Biden’s, and told reporters in Taipei: “We cannot back away from that.”
As U.S.-China Tensions Rise Following Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit, What’s Next?
Taiwan has become a key front line in the U.S.-China rivalry, with both countries ramping up military posturing in the region. WSJ explains why the U.S. is displaying support for the self-ruling island that China sees as part of its territory.
Fallout From Pelosi’s Taiwan Trip
China halts dialogue with US on important issues
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Pelosi was "seriously interfering in China's internal affairs and seriously undermining China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," with her visit to Taiwan this week.
Beijing said Pelosi had disregarded China's concerns and resolute opposition to her visit to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own. The ministry said China would "impose sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family," without giving further details. China also said it was canceling or suspending dialogue with the US on a range of issues — from climate change to military relations and anti-drug efforts — in retaliation for Pelosi's trip.
"We believe that this is fundamentally irresponsible," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in response to the suspension of cooperation on climate change. "They think they're punishing us by shutting down this channel," Kirby said. "They're actually punishing the whole world because the climate crisis doesn't recognize geographic boundaries and borders."
China halts cooperation with US over critical issues – as it happened
China says Nancy Pelosi ‘shot herself in foot’ with Taiwan visit
Qin Gang, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, has said the US “must bear full responsibility for the current situation across the Taiwan Straits”, reports Chinese state media.
China’s actions in the waters around Taiwan are “necessary and legitimate measures to deter separatist forces on the island, safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. With prior warnings, the Chinese side matches its words with actions,” Qin was quoted as saying by Global Times.
China halts military, climate dialogue with U.S. over Pelosi Taiwan trip
The Ground Force under the Eastern Theatre Command of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducts a long-range live-fire drill into the Taiwan Strait, from an undisclosed location in this August 4, 2022 handout released on August 5, 2022
China's foreign ministry said it was also suspending exchanges with Washington on countering cross-border crime and drug trafficking, all moves Washington called "irresponsible." Enraged when Pelosi became the highest-level U.S. visitor in 25 years to the self-governed island that Beijing regards as its territory, China launched military drills in the seas and skies around Taiwan on Thursday. The live-fire drills, the largest ever conducted by China in the Taiwan Strait, are scheduled to continue until noon on Sunday.
Taiwan's defence ministry said on Friday it scrambled jets to warn away Chinese aircraft that it said entered the island's air defence zone, some of which crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides. A total of 68 Chinese military aircraft and 13 navy ships had conducted missions in the strait, the ministry said.
Taiwan faces hard choices as drones from mainland China start flying over Quemoy in wake of Nancy Pelosi visit
The Chinese military’s decision to send drones over Quemoy island has left Taiwan facing a dilemma over how to respond. Military observers said trying to shoot them down increased the risk of a conflict with Beijing as tensions rise following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan this week.
On the other hand they are believed to have been used to gather intelligence about Taiwan’s military strength and preparedness on the island, which is just 3.2km (2 miles) from the mainland city of Xiamen, and a failure to act could encourage more operations in future.
The People’s Liberation Army drones were spotted flying over Quemoy, which is also known as Kinmen, on Wednesday night – hours after Pelosi left Taipei for South Korea as part of her Asia tour and the night before a series of live-fire exercises around the coast of Taiwan island started. Troops in Quemoy fired flares to warn the drone away and maintained combat readiness, the Taiwanese defence ministry said in a statement.
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China halts climate, military talks with US, suspends other cooperation after Pelosi's Taiwan visit
China on Friday (Aug 5) announced that it would suspend cooperation with the United States on a range of issues, including talks on climate change, as it continues to take retaliatory measures following US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
The Chinese foreign ministry said it was taking these countermeasures in the light of Mrs Pelosi’s “insistence on visiting Taiwan in disregard to China’s strong opposition and solemn representations”. The measures will end talks on the crucial issue of climate change, as well as cooperation on issues including drug control, combating transnational crime, and repatriation of illegal immigrants. Also scrapped are dialogue between leaders of Chinese and US military theatres, working level meetings between the two countries’ defence ministries, and a consultation mechanism on maritime military safety.
Beijing’s latest action will put to an end, at least temporarily, the few areas of cooperation remaining between the two powers, plunging relations to a new low. It has also imposed sanctions on Mrs Pelosi and her immediate family members, although it did not provide details on what this entails.
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China suspends cooperation with US on range of issues, sanctions Pelosi over Taiwan trip
China's Foreign Ministry announced new countermeasures against Washington on Friday, including the suspension of climate talks, in response to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, hours after it announced sanctions against the US House speaker.
The measures include the cancellation of future phone calls and meetings between Chinese and US defense leaders, for which future dates had not been announced, and the cancellation of annual naval meetings under the China-US military maritime consultation mechanism. China also suspended cooperation on the repatriation of illegal immigrants, legal assistance on criminal matters and the combat of transnational crimes, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a briefing Friday.
It suspended its anti-drug cooperation with the US, which has already been strained in recent years. The US has blamed China for failing to stop synthetic opioids reaching the US as both Beijing and Washington disagree on how to counteract the problem. China's Foreign Ministry also said it would suspend climate change talks, a major area of cooperation despite escalating tensions in recent years.
related: China sends warships and jets close to Taiwan and sparks alert in Japan as tensions rise in strait
China suspends climate change cooperation with US and sanctions Nancy Pelosi in retaliation for Taiwan visit
A Chinese People’s Liberation Army pictured in the skies above Furjian province, near the Taiwanese-held island of Pingtan. Photo: Reuters
China has suspended cooperation with the United States in the fight against climate change as part of a range of measures in response to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which also included sanctions on the House Speaker and her family.
Regular dialogues between the world’s two most powerful armed forces have also been cancelled, making it harder for them to prevent accidental conflicts. Beijing also said it would stop cooperating in tackling the drugs trade, fighting crime and repatriating illegal immigrants. Pelosi, second in the presidential line of succession, is the most senior US politician to have been sanctioned by China after she became the first house speaker to visit the island in 25 years.
The unannounced visit provoked a furious reaction from Beijing, which sees the island as part of its own territory and had issued repeated warnings against making a trip it regarded as a serious violation of its sovereignty. Both the White House and Pelosi have said there was no intent to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. The US acknowledges the one-China principle, which holds that Taiwan is part of China, but opposes any attempt to take the island by force. Beijing, however, believes the trip was intended to embolden the pro-independence movement in Taiwan.
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China’s reaction to Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit is a significant changing of the status quo
In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, a projectile is launched from an unspecified location in China on Aug 4, 2022. (Image: AP/CCTV)
The exercises, which are due to run until Sunday, will see the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command - which is responsible for operations in and around Taiwan - conduct “long-range live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait and conventional missile tests in the waters off the eastern coast of the island”. China announced the drills in six blocks of waters and airspace off Taiwan’s north, east and south for the exercises shortly after Pelosi landed on the island on Tuesday night.
A seventh block of water and airspace in the Western Pacific east of Taiwan was gazetted for the exercises by China’s Port Bureau on Thursday, with the end date of the exercise extended to 10am on Monday. The drills began at noon on Thursday, with China firing ballistic missiles and deploying fighter jets and warships.
China restricts trade with Taiwan amid tensions over Pelosi trip
China has restricted its trade with Taiwan amid elevated tensions over United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the democratically-ruled island.
Chinese commerce and customs authorities said on Wednesday they had halted exports of sand, a key material used in construction, and imports of Taiwanese citrus fruit and some types of fish. China’s General Administration of Customs said the food imports were halted due to the presence of pesticide and the coronavirus in some shipments, while the Ministry of Commerce said it had suspended sand exports in line with unspecified legal provisions.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office separately announced it would prohibit mainland Chinese companies and individuals from financial dealings with two Taiwanese foundations, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund.
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Why China-Taiwan Relations Are So Tense
A helicopter flies a Taiwanese flag in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Ceng Shou Yi/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), is an island separated from China by the Taiwan Strait. It has been governed independently of mainland China, officially the People’s Republic of China (PRC), since 1949. The PRC views the island as a renegade province and vows to eventually “unify” Taiwan with the mainland. In Taiwan, which has its own democratically elected government and is home to twenty-three million people, political leaders have differing views on the island’s status and relations with the mainland.
Cross-strait tensions have escalated since the election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. Tsai has refused to accept a formula that her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, endorsed to allow for increased cross-strait ties. Meanwhile, Beijing has taken increasingly aggressive actions, including by flying fighter jets near the island. Some analysts fear a Chinese attack on Taiwan has the potential to draw the United States into a war with China. Is Taiwan part of China? Beijing asserts that there is only “one China” and that Taiwan is part of it. It views the PRC as the only legitimate government of China, an approach it calls the One-China principle, and seeks Taiwan’s eventual “unification” with the mainland.
Beijing claims that Taiwan is bound by an understanding known as the 1992 Consensus, which was reached between representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) party that then ruled Taiwan. However, the two sides don’t agree on the content of this so-called consensus, and it was never intended to address the question of Taiwan’s legal status. For the PRC, as Chinese President Xi Jinping has stated, the 1992 Consensus reflects an agreement that “the two sides of the strait belong to one China and would work together to seek national reunification.” For the KMT, it means “one China, different interpretations,” with the ROC standing as the “one China.”
US Speaker Nancy Pelosi leaves Taiwan after controversial visit
China said the visit was a "dangerous and stupid" move, as it announced new economic measures and other sanctions against the island.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that needs to be retaken, by force if necessary.
