Following weeks of military exercises and war games by Beijing close to the island, a Chinese government official stated on Wednesday that China is willing to use every possible effort to work toward a peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan.
Taiwan, which is democratically run, is considered to be part of China. The Taiwanese government denies China’s claims to sovereignty and asserts that only the island’s residents have the power to determine its future.
Since early last month, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, China has been conducting maneuvers close to Taiwan, including shooting missiles into the waters nearby the island.
Prior to next month’s once every five years Communist Party congress, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, stated during a news conference in Beijing that China was prepared to exert the greatest amount of effort to accomplish peaceful “reunification”.
Ma declared, “The homeland must be reunified and will undoubtedly be reunified.” He continued by saying that China’s commitment to defending its borders is strong.
A “one nation, two systems” approach has been put forth by China for Taiwan, which is akin to the plan used to retake control of the former British colony of Hong Kong in 1997.
Ma stated that Taiwan may have a “social structure different from the mainland” to ensure that their way of life, including religious freedoms, were respected, but it was “under the precondition of preserving national sovereignty, security, and development interests.”
According to polls, that idea has almost no public support and has been rejected by all major Taiwanese political parties, especially after Beijing enacted a national security ordinance in Hong Kong in 2020 following the city’s often violent anti-government and anti-China riots.
China has also never renounced using force to annex Taiwan, and in 2005 it approved a legislation giving it the legal justification to use military action against Taiwan if it secesses or appears to be about to.
China has also never renounced using force to annex Taiwan, and in 2005 it approved a legislation giving it the legal justification to use military action against Taiwan if it secesses or appears to be about to.
Since Tsai Ing-wen initially assumed power in 2016, China has refused to communicate with her, claiming that she is a separatist. She has consistently offered to speak with you on the terms of equality and respect for one another.
However, in 2015, Ma Ying-jeou, Tsai’s predecessor, met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore.
Qiu Kaiming, head of the research division at the party’s Taiwan Work Office, stated at the same news conference that the Xi-Ma meeting demonstrated their “strategic flexibility” towards Taiwan.
That “shown to the world that Chinese people are absolutely wise and capable of solving our own problems on both sides of the Strait,” he continued.
According to Taiwan’s government, the People’s Republic of China’s claims to sovereignty over the island are invalid because it has never been under its control.