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Background
China has strongly condemned the US for arranging a visit by Taiwanese Vice President William Lai. Beijing says it will take resolute and forceful measures to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry says Beijing is firmly opposed to any form of official exchanges between the US and Taiwan. It also labeled Lai a “downright troublemaker”. Lai is a vocal separatist and the frontrunner in Taiwan’s presidential elections next year. He is officially making transit stops in the US en route to and from Paraguay.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory. Washington does not have formal diplomatic relations with the island, but maintains close ties with the territory and is its most important international source of weapons.
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PressTV: How do you see this non-stop provocation by the US? Will there be a point when China says enough is enough?
Peter Koenig (PK): Of course, China is opposed to official political exchanges between the US and Taiwan because Taiwan is an integral part of Mainland China. The US is well aware of this but uses this bone of contention for constant provocation with official visits to Taiwan – case in point, Pelosi and other US Congress People; or inviting Taiwanese “political officials” to the US – but foremost, the US delivering weaponry to Taiwan, is just intolerable.
If Taiwanese Vice President Lai wants to make a private stop-over in New York or Washington, on his way from or to Paraguay, that is his affair. But an official stop, meaning meetings with US political leaders, is a no-go.
It is an absolute infraction against diplomacy 101. It just heightens the conflict even more. This is even against international law, if we only still had international law. International Law has been overruled by the self-styled Masters of the Universe – principally the US and Europe – and replaced by what they call a “Rules-based Order”.
In other words, whatever suits this elitist cabal is Law.
But back to delivering weapons to a self-ceded section of a country, in this case Taiwan from mainland China, is a crime.
In this case it might as well be considered a crime against humanity. Because this endless tension and war provocation has prompted already numerous dangerous military maneuvers and exercises in the South China Sea, and the Taiwanese people are heavily under stress. I know that personally from conversations with many Taiwanese.
What the Biden Administration does apparently not realize is that this non-stop provocation of Beijing will and is already backfiring. Because already today a large proportion of Taiwanese citizens, some say more than half the Taiwanese population, wants to integrate as soon as possible into Mainland China to stop the provocations – the fear from war, from aggression which is due only to US provocations and hassles.
What is inevitable – and every US Administration knows it – is that Taiwan sooner or later will be integrated peacefully into Mainland China. Hopefully sooner.
Already today, there are many direct relations, irreversible relations between Taiwan and China – business relations, joint scientific research, as well as investments from mainland China in Taiwan and vice-versa.
The recent – again US incited – “chips fiasco” is a case in point.
Taiwan chip manufacturers have built plants in mainland China and Chinese investments in chip manufacturing are going to Taiwan. The cooperation is irrevocable.
Also, in terms of labor exchange, daily thousands of people from Taiwan work in mainland China and to some extent vice-versa.
The link between the two parts of the same China is irreversible.
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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
