CGTN
If U.S. politicians believe they can destroy the one-China principle without any consequences, they need to think again. On April 14, a group of U.S. Senators, a total of six from both Republican and Democratic parties, landed in China’s Taiwan region. The delegation, including the Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, the current Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Lindsey Graham, a standard-bearer of Republican foreign policy, came after the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi postponed her trip due to testing positive for COVID-19 last week.
As Yahoo News pointed out in its report, the delegation traveled on a U.S. Air Force jet. It indicates the Biden Administration had sanctioned the trip. This group of bipartisan heavyweights, backed by the White House, is the clearest demonstration to date that the United States is ripping off any pretense of respect and adherence to the one-China policy, the foundation of the China-U.S. relationship.
Under Donald Trump’s administration, high-level visits grew frequent. Now, with Joe Biden in office, security, political and economic exchanges between the U.S. and Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party became systematic. America has gradually reduced its efforts to mask its salami-slicing tactics to peel Taiwan region away from China. Now, it seems that it’s not slicing salami anymore, it’s chopping off block after block.
Like Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian warned, this is a “wrong and dangerous path.” These blatant attempts are rendering the one-China principle more and more hollow by each of America’s actions. China’s red line is very clear that it wouldn’t allow Taiwan to claim independence. Any action that steers the region towards that outcome is equivalent to a declaration of hostility towards China.
It’s time to re-evaluate and re-think the China-U.S. relationship in regard to the Taiwan-related issues. America has grown brazen and emboldened in the recent years. The Ukraine conflict has injected a dose of fear into the decision-makers in the country, frightening them with the prospect that the Chinese mainland might be considering military actions in the region. That’s why these trips, though spontaneous as they seem and at short notice, are more and more filled with high-level U.S. officials that wield real power and influence within the system. The trips have become more than just symbolic.
The China-U.S. relationship is built upon the recognition that there’s only one sovereign state under the name China and Taiwan is a part of China. This is the cornerstone of China’s international relations, unalienable and inviolable. Given the complexity of the relationship with the United States, China has been measured and restrained in its response to the various intrusions that undermining of the one-China principle, hoping that U.S. politician would be enlightened enough to see the errors of their ways. However, today’s reality shows that China’s maturity has only been met with the irrational desire by the pompous U.S. political elites who have become unashamed about wielding Taiwan as a weapon for their own geopolitical purposes. Chinese people’s patience is wearing thin with each provocation.
Nothing good will happen going down this road. In a world already full of volatility, China and the U.S. are the two countries that have the capability to maintain some semblance of stability and order, and they are the two countries that could contribute the most to growth and development. For the sake of the world, it is a relationship that cannot be broken.
