Antagonizing Beijing, Taiwan’s 66-year-old President Tsai Ing-wen kicked sand in the face of 69-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping, making an official state visit to the United States. Beijing convulsed Aug. 4, 2022 when 82-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited Taipei in a blatant show of solidarity with the Republic of China [ROC]. Today’s meeting between Tsai and 58-year-old House Speaker Kevin McCaurthy (D-Calif.) at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., marks another low point in U.S.-China relations. Beijing promised “resolute and forceful measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” something that involves intrusive military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. Xi considers Taiwan, the Island of Formosa, part of Mainland China, something disputed by the U.S. and Taiwan. Biden infuriated Xi Sept 23, 2022 saying he would defend Taiwan.
President Jimmy Carter, 98, ended the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty in 1979, officially starting the one China policy, with the U.S. government recognizing only Beijing. Since 1979, generations of U.S. presidents practiced strategic ambiguity on whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan in the event of a Mainland Chinese invasion. Biden broke the rule of strategic ambiguity telling China he would send U.S. troops to Taipei to defend the Island-nation of Formosa. During the 1949 Maoist Revolution, Chinese nationalists led by Gen. Chaing Kai-shek fled to the Island of Formosa where, with U.S. security help, created the democratic Republic of China. Xi thinks because the Island of Formosa was part of China, Beijin holds sovereignty. Taiwan wants no part of the Beijing government. Tsai’s visit today confirms the same U.S. security arrangement.
Beijing reacted harshly to Tsai’s visit with McCarthy, promising to make life difficult for Taipei. Since Pelosi’s visit, Beijing routinely flies warplanes and warships into the Taiwan Strait, threatening a possible invasion. In Dec. 2022, Beijing sent 71 warplanes and seven ships into the Taiwan Strait for a seven-day period. Pentagon officials think Beijing isn’t ready for any invasion now but things could change in the future. Whenever Beijing sees U.S. or Taiwanese officials promising beefed up security it sends the Chinese Community Party into seizures. “We will take resolute measures to punish the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and their actions, and resolutely safeguard our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said today. Taiwan said it was tracking China’s Shendong aircraft carrier passing east trough the Bashi Strait.
McCarty spoke Wednesday at the Reagan Library, reassuring Tsai about U.S. support for the democratic island nation. “America’s support for the people of Taiwan will remain resolute, unwavering and bipartisan,” McCarthy said. McCarthy said U.S.-Taiwan relations are stronger than any time in his lifetime, further antagonizing Beijing. Tsai’s visit to the U.S. pushes China into a closer strategic alliance with Moscow, knowing that the U.S. has Taiwan’s back, not Mainland China’s. Tsai told McCarthy that “the unwavering support measures the people of Taiwan that were are not isolated,” again provoking Beijing. How long these visits can go on before Beijing acts aggressively toward Taipei is anyone’s guess. “It is no secret that today the peace that we have maintained and the democracy which we have worked hard to build are facing unprecedented challenges,” said Tsai.
U.S.-Chinese relations are at a post WW-II low, putting the Pentagon on a collision course with military confrontation. Xi understands that Biden wants to contain China, no longer has strategic interests in working with the U.S. Joining Russia in an economic and military alliance, China no longer trusts the U.S. for any kind of cooperation. More public displays of Taiwan asserting its independence with U.S. help pushes both countries into a future confrontation. ”We once again find ourselves in a world where democracy is under threat and the urgency of keeping the beacon of freedom shining cannot be understood,” Tsai said, speaking the same kind of claptrap that could provoke a Chinese invasion. With Biden in a proxy war against the Russian Federation, how’s the Pentagon supposed to handle a new military conflict with China? One wrong move now could create a two-front war.
Whether the U.S. and China come to blows sometime soon is anyone’s guess. What’s clear is that U.S. elected officials are tone deaf to the highly sensitive nature to U.S.-Chinese relations. Every statement about preserving Taiwan’s democracy beats the war drums in Beijing. “By being here I think sends a signal to the Chinese Communist Party that the United States supports Taiwan and that we’re going to harden Taiwan and wer want them to thin twice about invading Taiwan,” said 61-year-old Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tx.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, making more incendiary statements. China no longer trusts U.S. foreign policy, believing Washington has sold Beijing out to Taipei. Biden’s foreign policy has put the U.S. into the most dangerous national security atmosphere since WW II. More reckless rhetoric could push Beijing to act on Taiwan.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
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