Anger at Pelosi visit justified: experts

Beijing has good reason to feel agitated and respond strongly to US House speaker’s Taiwan trip

It is natural for China to feel angry and oppose the recent visit to Taiwan by United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, because the trip openly violates the one-China policy and challenges China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, experts said, explaining China’s reaction and the severe countermeasures it has taken.

It is clear that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are the same country, and the Taiwan question, which is purely China’s internal affair, brooks no interference by foreign forces, they said.

Traveling in a military aircraft, Pelosi — second in the line of succession to the US president — last week paid a high-profile “official visit to Taiwan”, as her office described it in her arrival statement, and was given full protocol treatment by Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party authorities, which make no secret of pursuing “independence” in their party platform.

Pelosi’s two-day trip included meeting with the island’s leader Tsai Ingwen and some “human rights” advocates, as well as visiting the island’s “legislative” authority.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese watched, discussed and were outraged by the provocative trip, which prompted unprecedented countermeasures by the Chinese government, including canceling three cooperative dialogues or meetings with the defense authorities of the US, suspending climate talks, and conducting live-fire drills surrounding the Taiwan island.

Bao Chengke, assistant director at the Institute for East Asian Studies in Shanghai, said the visit has trampled on the principle of one China and China’s national sovereignty, and was a move that in nature promoted the concept of “one China, one Taiwan”.

To the Chinese side, the one-China policy is a bottom line that cannot be crossed. It has been reiterated numerous times by the Chinese government, and is firmly believed by the Chinese people, that the two sides of the Straits belong to one China.

It was even worse that Pelosi turned a deaf ear to repeated warnings from the Chinese government and still made the trip, Bao said, adding that when something like this happens, it is reasonable for any country to feel angry and take severe countermeasures.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has said that the Taiwan question arose out of the weakness and chaos of the nation in the past, and that it will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality.

In 1894, Japan launched the First Sino-Japanese War to invade China. In the following year, the government of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan under the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki.

In 1945, the Chinese people won the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945). Taiwan was thus recovered and returned to the motherland.

It was not long, however, before the two sides of the Straits fell into a special state of protracted political confrontation due to civil war in China and the interference of foreign forces.

In 1949, the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of

China was established, replacing the Republic of China government as the sole legal government representing the whole of China.

“The one-China principle is part of the postwar international order and has become a general international consensus. As a country that thinks of itself as a champion of the ‘rulesbased international order’, the United States should naturally abide by the one-China principle,” China’s ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, wrote in an article in The Washington Post on Aug 4.

“President Biden has said many times that the United States will not change its one-China policy and does not support ‘Taiwan independence’. But for the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces, Pelosi’s visit represents an exceptionally strong signal that ‘the US is on Taiwan’s side’. This goes against the one-China principle, the three SinoUS joint communiques and America’s own commitments,” Qin wrote.

Wu Yongping, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Tsinghua University, said US support for “Taiwan independence” separatists is a fundamental reason why the Taiwan question is so difficult to resolve.

The US has tried to obscure and hollow out the principle of one China, Wu said, adding that Washington has colluded with “Taiwan independence” forces on the island and elevated relations with the island in various ways, including arms sales.

Despite the complex situation, experts believe the two sides of the Straits must be reunified in the future.

The mainland has great patience in dealing with the Taiwan question, and it has been working to promote integrated development and cooperation between people across the Straits in order to gradually overcome the resentment and differences and find the path of future reunification, said Bao from the Institute for East Asian Studies.

Wu said the mainland’s ability to resolve the Taiwan question has been increasing as well, which could been seen in the recent countermeasures, and no other forces should underestimate such ability and China’s determination to safeguard its sovereignty and unity.