(TibetanReview.net, Sep03’24) – The People’s Republic of China, founded in 1949, has never exercised authority over the self-governed island of Taiwan. Nevertheless, it claims the legacy of the rulers of China, including foreigners, dating back over millennia and insists that Taiwan is part of it. Well, in that case it should also take back land from Russia signed over by the last dynasty that ruled China in the 19th century, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te has said in an interview with Taiwanese media.
Speaking in an interview with a Taiwanese television station broadcast late on Sep 1, Lai, who China calls a “separatist”, brought up the 1858 Treaty of Aigun in which China signed over a vast tract of land in what is now Russia’s far east to the Russian empire, forming much of the present-day border along the Amur River, reported Reuters Sep 2.
Under this 1858 treaty, Russia annexed about 1m sq km of Chinese territory, including Haishengwei – today known as Vladivostok, noted theguardian.com Sep 2.
The Qing dynasty (founded by a northeast Asian people who called themselves Manchus), which Chinese nationalists had condemned as foreign rulers and which was then in terminal decline, originally refused to ratify the treaty but it was affirmed two years later in the Convention of Peking. China today refers to this as one of the “unequal” treaties foreign powers had forced it to sign in the 19th Century.
“China’s intention to attack and annex Taiwan is not because of what any one person or political party in Taiwan says or does. It is not for the sake of territorial integrity that China wants to annex Taiwan,” Lai was quoted as saying.
“If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t it take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the Treaty of Aigun? Russia is now at its weakest, right?” Lai has added.
That China does not do so makes it obvious that they don’t want to invade Taiwan for territorial reasons.
Rather, “it wants to achieve hegemony in the international area, in the Western Pacific – that is it’s real aim,” Laid has contended.
Beijing wishes to annex Taiwan because it wants to “transform the rules-based global order” and “achieve hegemony” and not because of concerns over “territorial integrity,” the CNA news service Sep 2 cite Lai as saying.