<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1660761541328,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-5c82-d10d-abef-7cd380f80002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1660761541328,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-5c82-d10d-abef-7cd380f80002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_60761529", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1074671"} }); ","_id":"00000182-ad19-da90-a5e3-fd9ffe8c0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedChinese forces could invade Taiwan “perhaps even tomorrow” if political conditions on the island necessitate it, according to a senior Chinese envoy.
“Actually the ball right now is in the hands of the Americans, not the Chinese,” Chinese Ambassador Yi Xianliang told a Norwegian media outlet. “If the US would like to take some measures to damage China’s core interest or fundamental interest, then we have to act. But I do believe, it will not happen.”
Those remarks tend to underscore the salience of the political signals sent by U.S. and Taiwanese officials, an emphasis that might dovetail with American analysts who want U.S. officials to focus on improving Taiwan’s military defenses while avoiding high-profile political contacts. China erupted over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) recent trip to Taipei, although U.S. officials maintain that Chinese officials used the trip “as a pretext to increase provocative military activity,” while Moscow and Beijing took the opportunity to showcase their political alignment.
“We have no timetable, but if the Americans, the outside forces and the separatists on the island take more provocative actions, the unification time will be shortened, not in 2049, perhaps even tomorrow,” said Yi, the top Chinese diplomat in Norway. “We have a law for this. In 2005, we passed the Anti-Secession Law, if [Taiwan] declared independence, it will be unification by non-peaceful way, it’s war.”
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The mainland Chinese regime has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when the Chinese communist revolution brought Chairman Mao Zedong to power in Beijing. The nationalists defeated in that civil war retreated from Beijing to Taipei, where they relocated the Republic of China that in theory still claims the entirety of mainland as its rightful territory, a tangled history that allows Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to say that the island democracy is “an independent country already,” without taking any of the formal moves that would provoke an assault from the mainland.
“We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,” Tsai has said. “We have a separate identity and we’re a country of our own. We deserve respect from China.”
Chinese officials reveled in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent condemnation of Pelosi’s visit — “not just a voyage by an irresponsible politician, but part of the purpose-oriented and deliberate US strategy designed to destabilize the situation and sow chaos in the region and the world,” Putin insisted Tuesday — citing his rhetoric to argue that Beijing has widespread international support.
“The latest remarks by President Putin demonstrates the high-level strategic coordination between China and Russia, and the firm support the two countries have rendered each other on issues concerning their core interests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Wednesday.
Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping made a show of support in the weeks leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when they condemned “attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions.” Xi also endorsed Putin’s negotiating position in the brewing Ukraine war, which Putin justified by claiming that Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine want to cast off the authority of the Ukrainian central government in favor of Moscow.
The tension between China’s own rhetoric about Taiwan and support for Russia’s invasion can be a tricky thing for Chinese officials to navigate.
“Taiwan does not only belong to the 23 million people on the island, it also belongs to the 1.4 billion. If some people in Svalbard would like to be independent, or to be one part of Russia. Will Oslo agree?” Yi said. “Sovereignty, territorial integration are so important for all states, including Norway, US and others. Taiwan is one part of China, why some people and some countries would like to see a independent Taiwan. What’s the intention? I must say that is ill-intentioned, an evil intention.”
Russian officials plan to hold a series of so-called referenda in territories that they have seized from Ukraine since the war began in order to produce a vote by those regions to leave Ukraine and be joined to the Russian state. Ukrainian leaders and Western officials have condemned such votes, in part on the grounds that an occupied territory cannot hold such an election.
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“China once again urges the US to abide by the basic norms in international relations including respecting other countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, and non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs,” Wang said. “Stop undermining China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for China-US cooperation.”
