As widely expected, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has been given an unprecedented third term as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary and head of the Central Military Commission (CMC), with the party’s 20th national congress rubber-stamping a sweeping reshuffling of the top ruling body to fill it with Xi loyalists. With Xi accruing more power than any Chinese leader since Mao Zedong (毛澤東), Taiwan and the international community face a much more powerful head of the world’s second-largest economy, who threatens to be more dangerous to global order and stability than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Xi’s political protege, Shanghai CCP Secretary Li Qiang (李強), well known for a controversial lockdown of Shanghai that provoked public resentment and an exodus from the city, has been promoted to No. 2 in the Central Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP. He is also the leading candidate to be the next premier. Li’s rapid rise to the party’s inner circle should disabuse anyone of the notion that Xi might rein in his expansion of power in China and around the world in the interests of economic development.
Tensions across the Taiwan Strait are unlikely to abate, either. China’s heads of Taiwan affairs have been excluded from the politburo, replaced by Xi loyalists, with CMC Vice Chairman He Weidong (何衛東), the architect of the military drills surrounding Taiwan in August, joining fellow vice chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠), an advocate of unifying with Taiwan by force. This is another reflection of Xi’s policy to take over Taiwan as the final piece to achieve his dream of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Xi’s remarks at the congress revealed a more radical foreign policy than ever. In his address at the 19th national congress in 2017, he did not touch on external forces, but this year, he hailed the crushing of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong as a move from “chaos to governance,” and said he would never renounce “unifying Taiwan by force.” He also made it clear that China would be “taking all measures necessary” against “interference by external forces.” He said that global geopolitics is “undergoing changes unseen in a century,” and that “the world system is broken, and China has answers.”
Some experts read from Xi’s comments that Beijing wants to be a world leader. China already has the world’s second-highest military spending, but Xi said Beijing “will work faster” to modernize its military. The CCP has added a charter to its constitution for the country to “create a robust and world-class military.”
Under Xi’s nationalism and repeated calls for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” China is demonstrating its ambition to reinterpret international rules and reshape the world order. It considers any objection to its expansion as foreign intervention, similar to Putin’s statements that his misguided invasion of Ukraine was needed to protect Russia’s sovereignty. China’s desire to expand its global influence has been seen in moves such as its sweeping claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea and the construction of military bases on uninhabited islands, the military drills surrounding Taiwan, and its attempts to persuade Pacific island nations host Chinese military bases.
A YouGov-Cambridge Global survey conducted in 25 countries revealed that China’s reputation has deteriorated over the past four years, with more countries regarding China as a growing threat to international democracy, human rights and stability.
Facing an expansionist China under Xi’s fortified one-man rule, Taiwan must confront all possible attempts at coercion. At the same time, democratic countries need to cooperate on efforts to foil China’s attempts to sabotage global peace and prosperity.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
On Monday, the day before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed on her visit to China, the party released a promotional video titled “Only with peace can we ‘lie flat’” to highlight its desire to have peace across the Taiwan Strait. However, its use of the expression “lie flat” (tang ping, 躺平) drew sarcastic comments, with critics saying it sounded as if the party was “bowing down” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Amid the controversy over the opposition parties blocking proposed defense budgets, Cheng departed for China after receiving an invitation from the CCP, with a meeting with
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is leading a delegation to China through Sunday. She is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing tomorrow. That date coincides with the anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which marked a cornerstone of Taiwan-US relations. Staging their meeting on this date makes it clear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intends to challenge the US and demonstrate its “authority” over Taiwan. Since the US severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, it has relied on the TRA as a legal basis for all
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
RSS