At the end of February in 1972, US president Richard Nixon visited Beijing to mark the beginning of a dramatic shift in attitudes and policies affecting the destinies of the respective regimes. Jimmy Carter ended America’s diplomatic recognition of Taiwan as the Republic of China (ROC) in January 1979, switching those channels to the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC).
As this 50th anniversary passes, the highly acclaimed accords and diplomatic legerdemain clearly did not resolve the realities or the opposing views on opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait. Beijing continues its diplomatic offensive to isolate Taiwan. Lithuania was recently reproached by the Chinese leadership, insisting that Lithuania support the notion of “two Chinas.”
More troubling is that in recent months Beijing has been flexing its military muscles, ramping up tensions and giving the sense that an invasion or attack could start at any moment. Indeed, many commentators are of the opinion that Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, under many of the same pretenses, will embolden Xi Jinping to direct an attack on Taiwan while the rest of the world is distracted.
Despite the saber-rattling and diplomatic censures, Beijing’s claims for sovereignty over Taiwan are contradictory and incoherent. As it is, Taiwan exists as a political entity whether one identifies it as a state or not. It is worth noting that not only does Taipei have economic as well as political interactions with the rest of the world, it also engages in many of the same interactions with mainland China.
For its part, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) insists that Taiwan is an estranged province that must be reunited. In turn, the rest of the world has been placed on notice that the Taiwan issue is a matter of domestic realities and that Beijing will brook no foreign interference in whatever happens between them.
But Beijing’s assertion that relations with Taiwan are purely domestic is absurd and has been for at least 72 years. Once the Kuomintang abandoned the Mainland in 1949, Taiwan became a political entity under the rubric of the Republic of China (ROC). As such, much of the international community engages in economic and political relations with Taiwan, as does the PRC.
Even if one chooses not to identify Taiwan as a ‘state’, it has everything that every independent country has, namely a separate political administration, legal system, legislature, currency and banking system, as well as its own defense forces and diplomatic corps.
