America, China Quibble Over Taiwan

The United States has pulled high ranking diplomats from Panama, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador as a message to countries who would cut ties with Taiwan in favor of China’s One China policy. This comes after El Salvador was recently enticed to forge new diplomatic relations with Mainland China and dissolve those it had with Taiwan—effectively rejecting Taiwan as an independent country. China now has diplomatic ties with well over 100 nations—including the U.S.—compared to the 17 connections Taiwan now possesses. However, despite the nature of its own diplomatic relationships, the U.S. has shamed countries who give in to China’s demands.

China shot back at the U.S. this week, citing the country’s own recognition of the One China Policy. “We remind the individual country that they have themselves recognized the ‘one China’ principle, and the fact that many years ago they established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China,” stated Geng Shuang, a Chinese ministry spokesman, according to Reuters.

Despite China’s sharp remarks, the United States is considering cutting financial aid to countries that cut ties with Taiwan, a move which has caused some to wonder whether the U.S. will soon officially recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty. Short of making a point, the cessation of American aid to countries that acknowledge the One China policy will not do much to mitigate the problem posed by the communist nation. China offers its own aid packages to countries that reject diplomacy with Taiwan, in order to establish their connection with Beijing.

According to the Washington Examiner, U.S. Senator Ed Markey claimed that “Beijing is promising paydays to governments to entice them to cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan…..Without a coherent U.S. strategy to push back, Taiwan’s official partners might drop from seventeen to zero.”

Taiwan has consistently governed itself for decades, somehow clinging to its democracy despite the mainland’s fall to Communism in the mid-1900s. The mainland has claimed that Taiwan is a part of the Communist People’s Republic of China (PRC), but has allowed it to self-govern and maintain relations with Beijing as long as the island does not seek formal independence from China. China has threatened Taiwan with a military intervention if it ever attempts such a move.

The threat of invasion is perhaps more salient now than it has been in the past. With China investing so much into becoming one of the world’s leading military powers, Taiwan—with limited resources and few friends—is more vulnerable than President Tsai Ing Wen would like. Just last month, as she visited the Americas, the President asked the U.S. to protect Taiwan from the PRC.

But aside from rallying support from democratic countries, Taiwan is undertaking other measures to maintain its security. In the face of Chinese military progress, Taiwan is coming out with new, long range missiles and missile defense systems, aimed directly at countering an attack from the Chinese navy. Taiwan is also seeking out economic ties with other Asian countries, in the hopes of relieving some of its financial dependence on China.

The nations of the world need to push past the allure of financial gain and international power. Greediness and a desire to determine the moves of others will only increase the divide between the countries involved. The question of Taiwan’s independence is not something to be approached with vague reassurances from both sides for the sake of maintaining the status quo. No region is both independent and a part of another country. Taiwan is either completely sovereign in its own right or it is a state under the control of the Chinese mainland. It cannot be both. However, many countries have continued along the path of ambiguity—they do not formally recognize Taiwan, but still somehow considering it separate from China. This kind of stalemate, which was encouraged by the play on words proposed by the 1992 Consensus that declared “one China” but allowed for differing interpretations of the concept, has helped to create the problem the world is facing now.

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