The Chinese Communist party-owned newspaper has called on the country’s government to “display its resolution to recover Taiwan by force” before the US will start to dictate terms in the mutual relations.
Soldiers aim their weapons on CM21A1 armoured infantry fighting vehicles during an army exercise in Hsinchu, central Taiwan (Photo: Reuters / Nicky Loh)
Taiwan, which is considered by Beijing as a renegade state, should be seized by the Chinese government by force, before the new US administration will activate the “Taiwan card” in order to dictate terms in mutual relations, Global Times, the Chinese Communist party-owned newspaper, wrote earlier this week.
“It might be time for the Chinese mainland to reformulate its Taiwan policy, make the use of force as a main option and carefully prepare for it,” the article stated. “If the Chinese mainland won’t pile on more pressure over realizing reunification by using force, the chance of peaceful unification will only slip away. Independent forces on the island publicly believe that time is on their side… they can turn the tables with the help of international forces. The future of Taiwan must not be shaped by… Washington.”
The reason for such a calling was recent statements of the US President-elect Donald Trump and his team regarding China and Taiwan. Since the 1970s, the global community has been communicating with the two countries under the ‘One China’ arrangement, according to which countries can maintain formal diplomatic relations with either China or Taiwan, but not both. The US established formal relations with China in 1979. Although the US has informal ties with Taiwan, interacts with it commercially, and even sells it weapons, the leaders of the two states have not communicated directly for 40 years. However, last week, Trump had a phone conversation with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
In addition, last Sunday, speaking on Fox News, Trump also called into question the need for the US to maintain formal relations with Beijing instead of Taiwan, stressing, “I fully understand the ‘one China policy,’ but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China policy’ unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”
For this reason, Global Times warned that Beijing should solve the “Taiwan question” before Trump’s team takes over and proceeds to “utilize the one-China policy as leverage to blackmail Beijing.”
“It is possible for Washington to activate the Taiwan card in a crude manner at any moment. The tacit understanding and hidden rules made between China and the US over the Taiwan Straits can hardly be respected for long. Even the one-China policy can be attacked unexpectedly. That mirrors the fact that we are far from able to control the destructiveness of the Taiwan question,” the newspaper wrote.
