Both in Brussels and Washington, the position on Taiwan was unwavering for decades: there was sympathy for the democratic island, but the red lines of Beijing always weighed more heavily.
China, which sees Taiwan as a renegade province that will come under Chinese rule anyway, is reacting to the slightest signal that Taiwan is being treated as an independent country. Trade is allowed, informal, discreet contacts too, but when Taiwan tries to break out of its diplomatic isolation, Beijing sabotages those efforts.
Possible invasion
That era has had its day. In Washington, Biden verbally stretched the US position on Friday by telling CNN that the US will defend the island against China. On closer inspection, Biden said nothing new: Earlier this month, he also said the US was “reacting” to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. That assistance was already enshrined in the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979, but the fact that Biden speaks out the consequences so bluntly puts the matter on edge in Chinese eyes.
However, the threat of war in the Taiwan Straits has never been greater in the past forty years. By 2025, according to defense specialists, the Chinese army will be ready to invade Taiwan.
Although the White House said that US Taiwan policy remains the same; Biden ends the strategic ambiguity that generations of American politicians have observed. They did not allow themselves to be seen whether support for Taiwan actually meant participation in a war. This lack of clarity kept pressure on the kettle, because Beijing could not foresee the consequences of a possible invasion of Taiwan.
Taiwan motion
In Europe, too, China’s red lines are less sacred than they used to be, according to the first-ever Taiwan motion passed by the European Parliament on Thursday. That motion calls for closer relations with Taipei, a trade agreement and room for Taiwan in international organizations such as the World Health Organization, which now exclude Taipei.
Significant was the call from European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager for ‘solidarity’ with Taiwan-friendly member states suffering from Chinese reprisals. Lithuania, for example, which allows Taiwan to open an office that functions as an embassy, but which may not be called that so as not to piss off Beijing. Taiwan has such a presence in many capitals, but Beijing punished Vilnius by recalling its ambassador and stopping freight transport by train to Lithuania. Lithuanian business can forget about it in China for the time being. The EU will introduce legislation in December that will protect member states from this type of economic harassment.
China is so outraged by this change of course that Chinese EU ambassador Zhang Ming, according to the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post already in August put pressure on parliament speaker David Maria Sassoli. Zhang told him to ‘put his weight in the balance’ to keep parliament neatly within the limits set by Beijing.
Chinese pressure
Where such Chinese pressure worked three years ago, today it is counterproductive. This is mainly due to China itself. Western governments have become aware of the less friendly sides of China in recent years. Democracy in Hong Kong was crushed and China was opposed to research into the origin of the corona virus. Also, a Sino-European investment treaty was torpedoed by the EU a wide range of sanctions when the EU joined some US sanctions against China for human rights violations in Xinjiang.
Chinese aggression against anyone standing up for Taiwan will do the rest. Whether it’s the 814 fighter jets that China sent to Taiwan in the first week of October, the intimidation of Lithuania or the pressure on Sassoli: Taiwanese diplomats jokingly say that the Politburo in Beijing is the best PR agency the island has. can wish.
Take the Czech Republic and Slovakia, for example, who will receive Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu next week. Beijing is already ranting about “measures to defend Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity.” That Chinese breeze is creating more and more bad blood in Brussels.
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