Only 51 countries, not 180 as claimed by Beijing, adhere to its “one China” principle, a study by a Singaporean researcher showed.
In a paper published on Thursday, National University of Singapore assistant professor Chong Ja Ian (莊嘉穎) wrote that only 51 countries fully comply with the principle as Beijing defines it.
Chong, who is also a researcher at Washington-based think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, reviewed official documents from each country cited by China.
Photo: Reuters
Chong referenced a 1996 article by Soochow University professor Lee Tzu-wen (李子文) in which Lee researched Taiwan’s status in the international community.
Chong correlated that information with current documents from each country discussed in Lee’s article to show that, as of last month, only 51 nations “recognize the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and agree that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.”
Other countries use different wording in their official documents regarding China’s sovereignty claims over Taiwan.
Twenty-seven countries do not recognize the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and do not mention Taiwan’s sovereignty, while 16 “acknowledge” the claims, Chong wrote.
Nine countries say that they “recognize” the claims of China, but four say they “understand and respect” the claims.
The Netherlands and South Korea say only that they “respect” the claims, while Russia says it “supports and respects” China’s position on Taiwan’s sovereignty.
The US’ “one China” policy says it “acknowledges” China’s position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, while 14 countries cited are Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.
The remaining countries in the report make no clear reference to Taiwan’s sovereignty in their official documents.
It has been Washington’s long-standing policy not to take a position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, but US officials rarely address its stance publicly.
One such instance was when then-Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told a news conference on Oct. 12, 2021, that the US has long abided by its “one China” policy, which is distinct from Beijing’s “one China” principle, which asserts sovereignty over Taiwan.
The US “takes no position over the sovereignty of Taiwan or on sovereignty over Taiwan,” Kirby said.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS