On Thursday, called on Washington to abide by the “one-China principle” in response to Taiwan’s president confirming the presence of US troops on the island that are training Taipei’s military.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-US relations,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. “On the Taiwan question, the US should abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiqués, rather than unilaterally concoct anything.”
The three joint communiqués refer to a series of agreements made between the US and China between 1972 and 1982 while the two countries were establishing relations.
In 1979, Washington formally recognized Beijing as the sole government of China and severed diplomatic ties with Taipei. Under the 1982 communiqué, the US said it would gradually reduce arms sales to Taiwan, but instead, the weapons deals have steadily increased over the years.
Besides selling arms to Taiwan, the US has deployed small numbers of troops for training purposes. These deployments are not a secret, but this week marked the first time that a Taiwanese leader acknowledged the presence of US forces on the island since 1979. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen also said that she has “faith” the US would intervene if China invades Taiwan.
A former instructor for China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) told The South China Morning Post that Tsai’s admission was a serious “provocation” aimed at Beijing. “By revealing the US troops’ presence in Taiwan, Tsai is saying that Taiwan has the backing of the US so the PLA should not act rashly. This is a serious political and military provocation,” said Song Zhongping.
Wang said the US military presence in the region sends the “wrong signals” to Taiwan’s independence forces. “We firmly oppose official and military ties in any form between the US and the Taiwan region, and oppose the US’s interference in China’s internal affairs,” he said.
This is an open challenge to China’s rising power.
China is working extremely hard and quickly to expand and support trade all over Asia to Europe using land routes and sea lanes.
The so called “Belt and Road Initiative”. There are tens of trillions of dollars at stake. Part of this unprecedented plan is security for countries involved from interference or invasion.
The US has put enormous pressure on allies to either reject joining the BRI or risk the “consequences”. The consequences range from mild sanctions to a near complete economic isolation or even military actions. Just look at Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, etc.
China insists the benefits outweigh any potential consequences from the US. This is one reason for joint Russian Chinese military drills recently. Protection of current and future trade routes.
It is hard to convince countries that China can protect the land and sea routes from US piracy when they cannot secure their own island right off the coast against US occupation.
So, if China want’s their new world wide trade system to work, they will be forced to evict the US from the entire South China Sea and must start closest to home in Taiwan.
Right, they need to be able to protect their BRI investment. That means a blue water capability at least equal to the Empire. Which right now they’re nowhere near, and are forced to other expedients, …like diplomacy. Thankfully, mostly on account of the stupidity and brutality of ‘the ugly American’ they’re succeeding beyond all expectations.
I have assessed the geographical position of China and distances to Taiwan. In a miliatary mission to take taiwan, the Chinesse have all and more advantages to force surrender of taiwan within 1 to 3 hours of a direct military assault on taiwan.
The key action of the Chineese Military would be obvious positioning of its military assets in a conventional attack on taiwan high profile military targets. The success ratio would be in China’s favor. But more likely is the second or even third military action by China in assimryrical spheres of unpredictable favorable strategic target aqurireent of less military value assets but several aquirements would be detrimental to Taiwan defense.
This is so easy for the chineese to overcome taiwan its debatable in China whether to make it appear as a struggle to help.the defeatedvl Taiwanese to appear as ultimate warriors… so not to disgrace.