(TibetanReview.net, Nov24’21) – China balks at any express or implicit recognition of Taiwan as a country, which is exactly what the United States has done by inviting it to an online democracy summit alongside 109 other democratic governments. China, as well as Russia and Turkey are among countries not invited to the summit which will be held over Dec 9-10.
The act of listing the island among sovereign countries reflects the US is turning this so-called democracy summit into another ideology-driven clique in its campaign to contain China, said China’s trenchantly nationalist globaltimes.cn Nov 24.
The report cited Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying in a briefing on Nov 24 morning that the way the US listed Taiwan as a participant to this democracy-themed summit “is a mistake.”
“We firmly oppose any form of official interaction between the US and the island, which is a clear and consistent stance,” she has said, urging the US government to uphold the one-China principle and three joint communiqués between China and the US by properly handling the Taiwan question.
The US ‘one China’ policy acknowledges that Beijing claims Taiwan as a province but does not say it recognises the claim, noted theguardian.com Nov 24.
Taiwan is a democracy and self-governing, but Beijing claims it is a province of China and has accused its government of separatism, the report noted
Since taking office, US President Joe Biden and the White House have reiterated long-standing US support for its “one China” policy, which officially recognises Beijing rather than Taipei, but also said the US “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.
According to Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the development is manageable so long as President Tsai Ing-wen is not invited to represent Taiwan.
The inaugural gathering of the “Summit for Democracy” is considered a test of Biden’s pledge that he would return the US to a position asserting global leadership to challenge authoritarian forces led by China and Russia.
