Ambassador José María Liu
Representative of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in Spain
A gesture as laudable and peaceful as the visit of a leader of a democratic country to another democratic country to express friendship and support, such as Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to Taiwan, has been used by China as a pretext to beat the drums of war and initiate military manoeuvres with live fire around Taiwan, which, as the authoritarian regime in Beijing has warned, will be commonplace from now on. Particularly alarming is the escalation of military flights across the Taiwan Strait’s median dividing line, which has been exceeded by 300 flights in August alone, one hundred and fifty times more than last year. By crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line, China is trying to make it business as usual and thereby establish a “new normal” that is a unilateral change of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. And it is, in short, a challenge to the international order.
The Taiwan Strait’s median line serves as an important basis for securing regional peace. Also known as the Davis Line, it has its origins in the Mutual Defence Treaty signed between Taiwan and the United States in the 1950s. Observed for decades, it has formed the boundary line for Taiwanese and Chinese military air and naval patrols and law enforcement operations, avoiding military confrontations. The United States, Japan and other members of the international community also respect this reality. Moreover, it forms an indispensable pillar and symbol for maintaining the status quo of peace in the Taiwan Strait. By having military aircraft and vessels cross the median line, China has attempted to incorporate the Taiwan Strait into its jurisdiction and unilaterally alter the status quo, thus threatening security, peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
With its irresponsible attitude, China has ignored the large amount of international transport traffic passing through the Taiwan Strait and nearby areas. Not content with this, it deliberately threatens Taiwan with military force and imposes sanctions on it, which seriously affects the trade interests and transport security of all countries.
Unfortunately, the situation forces us to consider that the risk of war in the Taiwan Strait does exist, and we cannot ignore the fact that the repercussions of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be far greater than those caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We have to bear in mind that Taiwan has become the leading global supplier and the key part of the world’s chip supply chain, accounting today for 63 per cent of the world’s chip market. But what is even more important is that in wars there are never winners, only losers.
When he visited Japan this August, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on China to refrain from escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait, reflecting growing concern about the situation in the Taiwan Strait. Asked on CBS on 18 September whether US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, US President Joe Biden was as clear and blunt as ever: “yes, if in fact there were an unprecedented attack,” he said. Later, in his speech to the UN General Assembly, Biden reiterated once again that the US wants to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and continues to oppose unilateral changes to the status quo.
For its part, the European Parliament has always, and especially in recent times, shown clear and resounding support for Taiwan, to the point of having passed a total of 13 resolutions in favour of Taiwan in 2021, and so far this year 8 resolutions to the same effect. In the latest resolution, passed on 15 September, the European Parliament describes Taiwan as a partner that shares the values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The text strongly condemns China’s recent military manoeuvres and calls on Beijing to immediately stop all actions and intrusions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone and to restore full respect for the Taiwan Strait midline. The resolution underlines that it is up to the people of Taiwan to decide how they want to live and that the status quo between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should not be changed unilaterally.
Finally, in a joint statement on 22 September last, during the UN General Assembly session, the G7 foreign ministers and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy expressed their opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo, reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and encouraged the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.
All this demonstrates that the issues in the Taiwan Strait are not simply of an internal nature, as China claims, but matters of great importance to the world. That is why, as stakeholders, all members of the international community must watch and strongly condemn China’s harsh actions that undermine regional peace and diminish the rules-based international order. Now more than ever, with powers like Russia and China as clear threats, the entire democratic world must step up to stop the spread of authoritarianism in its tracks.
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