Tension in China-Taiwan over Seven Decades: The Role of International Politics

         This news outlet examines past ties between the independent island and its much larger neighbour as tensions between China and the United States soar amid rumours that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may visit Taiwan.

 

Separation: In October 1949, Mao Zedong's communists seized control of Beijing following their civil war victory over Chiang Kai-Kuomintang shek's (KMT) nationalists. In December, the KMT leaves China for the island of Taiwan, where they establish their own government in Taipei.

 

The United States, which is at war in Korea with communist China, gains Taiwan as an ally in 1950. To defend its partner from any invasion, the US has stationed a fleet in the Taiwan Strait.

 

Beijing receives UN and US approval Beijing assumes control of China's seat at the UN in October 1971, replacing Taipei. The United States officially severes ties with Taiwan in 1979 and replaces them with diplomatic ties to Beijing.

 

Washington declares its support for the "One China" policy, according to which Taiwan is regarded as a part of China, while nevertheless maintaining diplomatic and trade connections with Taipei.

 

Taiwan residents are finally allowed to go to mainland China in late 1987, allowing for family reunions. Taiwan lifts the emergency order in 1991, formally ending the war with China. Two years later, in Singapore, the first formal discussions between the parties take place. However, in 1995, Beijing halts negotiations in retaliation for Taiwanese president Lee Teng-trip hui's to the US.

 

China conducts missile tests off Taiwan in 1996 to dissuade citizens from casting ballots in the island's first democratic presidential election. The KMT loses control of Taiwan in the 2000 elections for the first time. The two sides' trade ties will get better over the next years.

 

Threats and negotiations: Beijing passes a law in March 2005 authorizing the use of force in the event that Taiwan declares independence. Lien Chan, the head of the KMT, travels to Beijing for a historic meeting with Hu Jintao in April. In 2008, Taiwan and China resume high-level discussions after the KMT’s Ma Ying-jeou is elected president on a Beijing-friendly platform.

 

They agree to a comprehensive Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement in 2010, and they hold their first government-to-government discussions since their split in 2014. The honeymoon is over: In January 2016, Tsai Ing-wen, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, which has historically supported independence, wins the presidency. Xi Jinping declares that the unification of China and Taiwan is "inevitable" in January 2019. China cuts off all contact with Taiwan in June as the new administration refuses to recognize the "One China" policy.

 

Donald Trump, the next US president, calls Tsai directly in December 2016, breaking with decades of US diplomatic practice. Tensions between the US and China: Hundreds of Chinese military incursions into Taiwan's defense zone in 2021. In remarks later partially retracted by the White House, US President Joe Biden stated in October that the US would defend Taiwan in the event if China attacked it.

 

Tsai acknowledges that a small contingent of US troops are stationed in Taiwan to assist in the training of its military. Reaction to Pelosi's tour: On May 23, Biden reiterated that the US would protect Taiwan in the event of an invasion and urged the West to stand hard against Russia over Ukraine to prevent China from trying to take Taiwan by force.

China keeps conducting military exercises surrounding Taiwan.

 

In defiance of calls for it to halt its largest-ever exercises encircling the democratic island in the aftermath of a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China conducted new military drills around Taiwan on Monday, according to Beijing. Beijing has reacted angrily to Pelosi's trip, which saw the highest-ranking elected US politician to visit Taiwan in many years tear up a number of agreements and talks with Washington, most notably those on climate change and defence.

 

Additionally, Beijing has sent out fighter jets, cruisers, and ballistic missiles in preparation for a blockade and eventual invasion of the self-governing island that China claims as its own. Although Taiwan's transport ministry claimed to have spotted some indications that at least a partial drawdown had occurred, Beijing and Taipei declined to acknowledge that the drills had come to an end on Sunday.

 

The Chinese People's Liberation Army's eastern theatre, it was reported on Monday, "continued to conduct practical joint drills and training in the sea and airspace near Taiwan island." According to the Eastern Command of the Chinese military, the exercises were "focused on organising coordinated anti-submarine and sea assault operations." Additionally, Beijing has scheduled live-fire drills for Monday in portions of the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea. Beijing has been conducting exercises for days, but Taiwan has maintained its defiance and will start its own live-fire drills on Tuesday.

 

Taiwan's premier, Su Tseng-chang, claimed that China was "barbarously utilising military action" to sabotage the stability of the Taiwan Strait. He told reporters on Sunday, "We call on the Chinese government not to go around using its military might, flaunting its muscles everywhere and endangering the peace of the area. The drills, according to Taipei's foreign ministry, threaten "the region and even the world." The Chinese military published a video of an air force pilot shooting Taiwan's shoreline and mountains from his cockpit to demonstrate how near it has come to the island.

 

The Eastern Command also published a picture of what it claimed to be a cruiser on patrol with Taiwan's coastline in the distance. According to Chinese official media, ballistic missiles were also fired over Taiwan's capital during the exercises last week. Outrage has been expressed in the United States and other democracies at the size and ferocity of China's drills, as well as Beijing's withdrawal from important climate and defense negotiations. Washington is "committed to act responsibly," according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in order to avert a serious global disaster.

 

Experts also claim that the drills have exposed a militarily strengthened China that is capable of encircling the island and preventing US forces from rescuing it. According to Grant Newsham, a researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies and a former US Navy commander, "the PLA might even surpass US capabilities in some areas," referring to China's military by its official name.

 

"Today's Chinese navy is a deadly opponent if the conflict is limited to the region immediately surrounding Taiwan, and if the Americans and Japanese do not step in for whatever reason, things would be terrible for Taiwan."