Falsehoods in US Perceptions of China

Bill Totten's Weblog Reality Check (Part 7 of 21) Author Uncategorized 2022/07/03 5 Minutes Falsehoods in US Perceptions of China https://english.news.cn (June 19 2022) Part 6 is at https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2022/07/02/reality-check-part-6-of-21/. Falsehood 7 The US remains committed to its “one China” policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. Its policy on Taiwan has not changed. Reality Check The one-China principle is an established norm of international relations and a universal consensus of the international community. The US has acted faithlessly, kept regressing from its own commitments and the consensus it reached with China, and attempted to weaken and undermine the one-China principle and use Taiwan to contain China. This is a major threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. * In October 1971, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted, with an overwhelming majority, Resolution 2758, which decided to restore the lawful seat of the People’s Republic of China in the UN, and has solved once and for all the issue of China’s representation in the UN in political, legal, and procedural terms. The official legal opinions of the Office of Legal Affairs of the UN Secretariat pointed out explicitly that “the United Nations considers Taiwan as a province of China with no separate status”, the “authorities in Taipei are not considered to … enjoy any form of governmental status”, and “Reference to Taiwan … should read Taiwan, Province of China”. On the basis of the one-China principle, China has established diplomatic relations with 181 countries, including the US. * The US made the following commitments to China regarding the one-China principle in the three China-US joint communiques. In the Shanghai Communique released in 1972, the US explicitly stated that “The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position”. In the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations released in 1978, the US clearly stated that “The United States of America recognizes the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China” … “The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China”. In the August 17 Communique released in 1982, the US unequivocally stated that “In the Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations on January 01 1979, issued by the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the United States of America, the United States of America recognized the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China, and it acknowledged the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China”, and that “it has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity, or interfering in China’s internal affairs, or pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’ “. According to this Communique, “the United States Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, that its arms sales to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms, the level of those supplied in recent years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution. In so stating, the United States acknowledges China’s consistent position regarding the thorough settlement of this issue”. * Rather than faithfully abiding by its commitments on Taiwan, the US has kept backpedaling on history. On the political front, the US has added the so-called “Taiwan Relations Act” and the “Six Assurances” to the expression of its one-China policy, with a growing list of such prefixes. Both prefixes are unilaterally made by the US side in breach of its commitments in the three China-US joint communiques as well as the one-China principle affirmed in the UNGA Resolution 2758 and widely observed by the international community. They are illegal, null, and void from the very beginning, and China has never acknowledged and has firmly rejected them from the outset. The US has also violated its commitment of maintaining unofficial relations only with Taiwan and kept upgrading the level of engagement. In recent years, senior US officials including the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Under Secretary of State as well as members of Congress have visited Taiwan. US ambassadors overseas have also met with Taiwan’s so-called “representatives” in their host countries. In the military field, the US has reneged on its commitment “that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution”. Instead of ceasing the arms sales, it has sold weapons at a larger scale and with enhanced capability including assault weapons such as anti-radiation missiles, heavy-weight torpedoes, and F-16V fighter jets. To date, the total volume of US arms sales to Taiwan has exceeded 70 billion US dollars. According to reports by Reuters and other news agencies, US special operations forces have been rotating into Taiwan on a temporary basis to train with Taiwanese forces. Since 2021, the US leader has stated publicly on three occasions that the US would help defend Taiwan in case of a war in the Taiwan Strait. On the international stage, the US has been assisting Taiwan in expanding its so-called “international space”. Recently, the US has been spreading globally the fallacy that UNGA Resolution 2758 did not determine the status of Taiwan, and that each country should be able to determine the contours of its own “one China” policy. It has vigorously advocated support for Taiwan’s participation as an observer in the 75th session of the World Health Assembly, and even blatantly helped to consolidate Taiwan’s “diplomatic relations”. * These US acts have breached its commitment that “it has no intention of … pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’ “. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2022, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said, “my understanding of the agreement (China and the US reached upon the establishment of diplomatic relations) has been that the United States would uphold the principle of one China … it is essential that these principles be maintained, and the United States should not by subterfuge or a gradual process, develop something of a two-China solution”. * Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities have been stubbornly advancing its “Taiwan independence” separatist agenda, and the US has been encouraging and supporting “Taiwan independence” forces overtly and covertly. This is the root cause of current tensions across the Taiwan Strait. To defend peace across the Taiwan Strait and beyond, we must forestall the growing tendency of “Taiwan independence” and the collusion between the US and Taiwan. The one-China principle must not be challenged. China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must not be infringed upon. And the red line that no one should pursue a policy of “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan” must not be crossed. China is fully confident, capable, and prepared to resolutely curb “Taiwan independence” separatist activities, resolutely foil all external interferences, and firmly safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The US should abide by the provisions in the three China-US joint communiques, follow a true one-China policy, and act on its commitments including on not supporting “Taiwan independence”. The US needs to genuinely reflect on and redress its regressive and erroneous behavior, and stop playing with fire on the Taiwan question. Otherwise, it would gravely jeopardize peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, undermine China-US relations and incur an unbearable cost on itself. Source: fmprc.gov.cnEditor: huaxia2022-06-19 22:19:29 https://english.news.cn/20220619/edf2556087954b8d90440b077a3c3c21/c.html