In the face of China’s increasing military threat to Taiwan, Taiwan’s Land Council Chairman Chen Ming, in a video message to a Washington think tank, called on the Beijing authorities to abandon “an imposed political framework” and engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan. U.S. Senator Toomey also said that the United States and its allies must stand with Taiwan, which is at the center of the U.S. and liberal camp’s fight against the Chinese Communist threat.
Chen and Toomey made the remarks Wednesday (Nov. 18) during a video seminar on “U.S.-Taiwan Partnership in Challenging Times” at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Chen said President Tsai Ing-wen has reiterated that maintaining stable cross-Strait relations is a shared responsibility of both sides, and that “the crux of the ongoing deterioration of cross-Strait relations lies in the Chinese authorities’ unilateral setting of the political preconditions for cross-Strait interaction,” calling on the Beijing authorities to “abandon the imposed framework and exercise flexibility, wisdom, and creativity” to engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan to reduce miscalculations and misunderstandings.
Taiwan will continue to deepen its relationship with the United States and strengthen international cooperation in order to fulfill its role as a responsible and powerful regional stakeholder in the Asia-Pacific security strategy, he said.
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), who is concerned about Hong Kong’s freedom and co-sponsored the Hong Kong Autonomy Act with his Senate colleagues, also said in this video discussion that the Chinese Communist Party’s “appetite for aggressiveness is growing” following Beijing’s implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, and that Taiwan has been on the front lines of the Chinese Communist Party’s belligerence as Xi Jinping has declared that Taiwan “must, and will be” reunified with China.
Aside from the fact that this was the CCP’s historical goal in the first place, Toomey argues, another reason why China forced Taiwan to reunify with it was because “the CCP was afraid that its own people would look across the Taiwan Strait and ask a simple question. They will ask: Why can’t we live in a country and society that enjoys prosperity and economic, political, and social freedom, like Taiwan?”
Toomey said that today’s aggressive behavior by the Chinese Communist Party around the world, especially against Taiwan, is a threat to the United States and the expansion of the Freedom Front, and that “Taiwan is at the center of this struggle, and the United States and our allies must stand with Taiwan against the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to pressure and coerce Taiwan into submission.”
In the video discussion, which was commissioned by the Land Commission and co-hosted by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and the Heritage Foundation, Chen also pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan and its encroachment on Taiwan’s airspace since the beginning of the year has “seriously undermined the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the long-standing cross-Strait tacit understanding of peace and mutual restraint,” with the intention of creating a psychological pressure of fear in Taiwan and forcing Taiwan to compromise within a political framework that has no room to stand on, an approach that is “contradictory to its leaders’ recent emphasis on China’s never-ending domination, non-expansion, love, and equality in the hope of dispelling outside doubts.
The Communist Party’s military expansion in the region, he said, “is counterproductive and will not only have a tremendously negative effect on its international image, but will also deepen the cooperation of neighboring countries in response and counterbalance.
Beijing, however, accuses Taiwan’s independence forces of being the threat to peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported on March 15 that the Chinese government is working on a “list of ‘Taiwan independence’ stubborn elements” to precisely target Taiwan independence forces inside and outside of Taiwan.
In response, Xinhua quoted Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying on Wednesday, “Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and their activities are the biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the biggest obstacle to the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. The actions of a handful of ‘Taiwan independence’ stubborn elements that openly provoke state sovereignty and territorial integrity must not be tolerated,” and the legal crackdown on them and their key supporters, such as their financiers, is to safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the interests of compatriots on both sides of the Strait.
She said that cross-strait reunification is an unstoppable trend, and that “all those stubborn and obstinate ‘Taiwan independence’ elements will surely be condemned and punished by history.”
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