Five foreign ministers visit Fujian to target Taiwan? Scholars: China’s Communist Party stirs up muddy waters

After Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Fujian, the foreign ministers of four ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries – Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore – and South Korea visited Fujian instead of Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece interpreted the visit as a “show to Taiwan”. However, according to Chinese scholars, the location is not important, as the CCP’s primary objective is to seek supporters and allies in the face of Western sanctions.

According to official media reports, the foreign ministers of four ASEAN countries – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines – and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong have been visiting China since March 31. The Chinese official media claimed that they wanted to “join hands with ASEAN to deal with the epidemic” and work together to oppose “vaccine nationalism” and prevent the emergence of a “vaccine divide.

This is the second time the Chinese side has scheduled a meeting with a foreign minister outside the capital, Beijing, in Fujian province, following a March 22-23 meeting between the foreign minister and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Guilin, Guangxi. Last year, the CPC also held foreign ministers’ meetings in Hainan and Yunnan.

But for the five foreign ministers to go to Xiamen instead of Beijing, Liu Hong, deputy editor-in-chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece Global magazine, said in an April 2 article on his own media “Niu Qiaoqin”: “Don’t forget, Fujian is across from Taiwan, just to show Taiwan, so many countries support China, Taiwan independence is a dead end. “

The “cattle playing qin” also said: “What is the purpose of the multi-country look at? It is to seize the Chinese dividend, not only diplomatic dividend, trade dividend, but also vaccine dividend.” He exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s “vaccine diplomacy” attempt. At the same time, he also stressed that the West is now pressing hard, but China’s friends are coming one after another, which is “China’s diplomatic breakthrough.

The picture shows a transport-9 communication countermeasures aircraft (the same type). (Courtesy of Taiwan Ministry of National Defense)

For the Chinese Communist Party to invite many foreign ministers, including ASEAN and South Korea, to meet in Fujian, China scholar and columnist Wang He said that it does not matter which city the five foreign ministers go to, but the key to the Chinese Communist Party’s diplomatic breakthrough.

According to Wang’s analysis, it is the U.S. “alliance strategy” and the Chinese Communist Party’s “international united front” that are currently dueling. The Chinese Communist Party deliberately hides the confrontation between Chinese Communist ideology and the universal values of the international community, attempting to use vaccines and economic lures to dismantle the U.S. alliance system and divide the relationship between the U.S. and its allies.

“The recent high-level talks between the U.S. and China were a lively fight between the two sides, with the CCP openly claiming to challenge the U.S.-led international order; now, both sides are making diplomatic layouts and seeking supporters and allies. This is a big background for this visit of the five foreign ministers to China.”

Wang He said that at present, the CCP is essentially facing an encirclement by the U.S.-led Western society, but this encirclement is far from being closed. The focus of the CCP’s “international united front” is still the neighboring and developing countries, and the main means is economic bundling and infiltration. ASEAN and some countries have formed a dual-track policy of “relying on the United States for security and China for economy. The five countries that visited this time are all members of the RCEP agreement, which is expected to take effect on January 1, 2022, and have a lot of economic cooperation with the CCP, and China is almost their respective largest trading country.

In addition, according to Wang He, the CCP is worried about being stuck with technology, while the biggest worry may be the military. One of the major concerns of the CCP is the issue of U.S. deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. earlier withdrew from the INF Treaty, which was aimed at the Chinese Communist Party. Where to deploy them is a key question.

“A previous RAND report suggested that it is imperative (for the U.S.) to deepen defense ties with the Philippines and Vietnam, and that it should also get better relations with southern Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. This would provide greater strategic depth and more options for the U.S. military.” If the U.S. adopts this proposal, Wang He said, this will become the main line of evolution of the military landscape in the Asia-Pacific. The Chinese Communist Party is particularly afraid of this, and the fact that the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have been invited this time shows that the Chinese Communist Party’s intentions run deep.

In contrast to the dilemma the CCP is in, the CCP mouthpiece commented that “the 5 foreign ministers did not go to Beijing, but to Fujian to intimidate Taiwan”, which he believes is “a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters and carry out psychological warfare against Taiwan”. These five countries have little impact on Taiwan’s military security. The Chinese Communist Party has been blocking Taiwan’s diplomatic space for more than a day or two now, so there is no need to do it on purpose this time. If there is anything against Taiwan, it is the “New Southbound Policy” that incidentally contains a strike against Taiwan, which is economic in nature.

“The Chinese Communist Party has deliberately excluded Taiwan from the RCEP and prevented Taiwan from joining international multilateral trade agreements and bilateral trade free zones, in order to keep Taiwan’s economy tethered to the belt of the Chinese Communist Party. ”