Over the weekend, a war of words broke out between Washington and Beijing at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, turning the annual powwow into less of a dialogue and more of an exchange of angry monologues.
During an address to delegates at the summit on Sunday, Chinese Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和) did not mince his words: “Let me make this clear: If anyone dares to secede Taiwan from China, we will not hesitate to fight. We will fight at all costs and we will fight to the very end. This is the only choice for China.”
The day before, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had used his address to warn that China had unilaterally changed the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait.
“Our policy hasn’t changed. But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be true for the PRC,” Austin said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Rather than a riposte to Austin’s address, Wei’s aggressive rhetoric was more likely aimed at US President Joe Biden’s remark, made during a visit to Tokyo at the end of last month, that the US would intervene militarily were China to attack Taiwan — the third time Biden has done so since taking office.
Wei’s choice of words was revealing. Rather than make the standard threat against a move toward Taiwanese independence initiated by Taipei, in a thinly veiled reference to the US, Wei introduced a third party into the equation, cautioning against “anyone” who might dare to “secede Taiwan from China.”
Beijing might be concerned that in moving from a policy of “strategic ambiguity” to “strategic clarity” over Taiwan, Washington might also be considering reinstating formal diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, or by some other means providing Taiwan with a greater presence on the international stage.
In a further upping of the rhetoric on Monday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文彬) stated that China exercises “sovereignty” over the Taiwan Strait and that “there is no such thing as international waters in international maritime law.”
“Relevant countries claim that the Taiwan Strait is in international waters with the aim to manipulate the Taiwan question and threaten China’s sovereignty,” Wang said.
Wang’s assertion that international waters are a fictional construct is deeply concerning. It is a direct challenge to the settled, rules-based global order that guarantees innocent passage on the high seas, and a free and open maritime commons. If the concept of international waters is allowed to become eroded, free trade between nations and the entire system of global trade would be imperiled.
Wang’s remarks provided confirmation of a report published by Bloomberg earlier the same day, which, quoting an unnamed source within the Biden administration, stated that Chinese officials have repeatedly told their US counterparts in private that the Taiwan Strait does not constitute international waters.
The Taiwan Strait at its narrowest is 70 nautical miles (130km) wide, and, at its widest, 220 nautical miles. Since the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines territorial waters as extending 12 nautical miles from a nation’s coastline and the additional “contiguous zone” of jurisdiction extends out to only 24 nautical miles, Beijing’s stance is unadulterated poppycock.
China’s vexatious claim is clearly an attempt at what it calls “lawfare” — weaponizing the law as part of its overall strategy to turn the Taiwan Strait, and the South and East China seas, into Chinese inland waterways. Beijing attempted a similar trick last year when it passed a law that for the first time explicitly allowed its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels.
China’s bellicose rhetoric at the Shangri-La Dialogue and its attempt to unilaterally redefine international maritime law is yet more proof that Beijing cannot be an equal competitor since it has tossed the rule book into the fire: The only viable option for Washington is containment.
A failure by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to respond to Israel’s brilliant 12-day (June 12-23) bombing and special operations war against Iran, topped by US President Donald Trump’s ordering the June 21 bombing of Iranian deep underground nuclear weapons fuel processing sites, has been noted by some as demonstrating a profound lack of resolve, even “impotence,” by China. However, this would be a dangerous underestimation of CCP ambitions and its broader and more profound military response to the Trump Administration — a challenge that includes an acceleration of its strategies to assist nuclear proxy states, and developing a wide array
Eating at a breakfast shop the other day, I turned to an old man sitting at the table next to mine. “Hey, did you hear that the Legislative Yuan passed a bill to give everyone NT$10,000 [US$340]?” I said, pointing to a newspaper headline. The old man cursed, then said: “Yeah, the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] canceled the NT$100 billion subsidy for Taiwan Power Co and announced they would give everyone NT$10,000 instead. “Nice. Now they are saying that if electricity prices go up, we can just use that cash to pay for it,” he said. “I have no time for drivel like
Twenty-four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers are facing recall votes on Saturday, prompting nearly all KMT officials and lawmakers to rally their supporters over the past weekend, urging them to vote “no” in a bid to retain their seats and preserve the KMT’s majority in the Legislative Yuan. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which had largely kept its distance from the civic recall campaigns, earlier this month instructed its officials and staff to support the recall groups in a final push to protect the nation. The justification for the recalls has increasingly been framed as a “resistance” movement against China and
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
RSS