Recently, certain individuals have exploited this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to spread lies and fallacies about the Taiwan question in the Israeli media, challenging the one-China principle as well as international justice and conscience. They have fallen into the trap of the narratives by Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities.
I. Taiwan is part of China’s territory. How can there be any talk of a “global role” for Taiwan? The question of Taiwan’s status was fundamentally resolved in 1945, when China won the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Taiwan was restored to China and has since been an inalienable part of China’s territory.
In 1971, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 was adopted by an overwhelming majority, with Israel voting in favor. The resolution made clear that there is but one China in the world and that Taiwan is part of China. Since then, United Nations official documents have referred to Taiwan as “Taiwan, Province of China.”
Taiwan has never existed as a country and must not be equated with any of today’s sovereign states. Anyone who hypes up Taiwan’s so-called “global role” is violating the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the important political and legal instruments that underpin the post-World War II international order, and is turning back the wheel of history and challenging the conscience of humanity.
II. Is it not a case of double standards and ulterior motives to advocate that Taiwan should make “contributions” through channels such as the United Nations?
China’s contributions to the international community have always been made as a whole and must not be fragmented under any pretext. The 23 million people in Taiwan are part of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people. China’s assessed contributions to the United Nations and other international organizations have always included Taiwan’s GDP in the calculation.
As part of China, Taiwan may participate in relevant international organization activities in technical fields with the consent of China’s central government. There are many successful examples of such participation every year.
Any attempt to circumvent China’s central government and instigate Taiwan to join international organizations is, in essence, support for “Taiwan independence" and an attempt to provoke confrontation across the Taiwan Strait. Such attempts are doomed to fail.
III. How can the DPP authorities in Taiwan, who are bent on imposing authoritarian rule under the banner of "Taiwan independence", possibly talk about “freedom” and “democracy”?
For some time, the DPP authorities in Taiwan have promoted "Taiwan independence" and resorted to every means possible to split the country. They have even sought to pursue "Taiwan independence" by relying on external forces and through force. They are the root cause of tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
Resolving the Taiwan question
Willfully disregarding the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan, which calls for peace, development, exchanges, and cooperation, they have pursued an anti-China agenda and opposed the Chinese mainland. They aim to heighten confrontation across the Taiwan Strait, undermine cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, and serve their own agenda of "Taiwan independence" authoritarianism.
Their actions have harmed the interests of the people in Taiwan and have nothing to do with democracy. Their rhetoric about “democracy versus authoritarianism” on the international stage is nothing more than a smokescreen to conceal their true goal of pursuing "Taiwan independence" and to deceive other countries into lending support to and endorsing separatist forces seeking independence.
Peaceful reunification and one country, two systems are China’s fundamental guidelines for resolving the Taiwan question and the best way to achieve national reunification.
However, if separatist forces provoke us and force our hand, or even challenge our bottom line and cross our red lines, we will be forced to take resolute measures. Some people claim that China would “invade” Taiwan. This is absurd. You may speak of “invading” another country, but how can there be any talk of “invading” one’s own inalienable territory?
I hope that, through my introduction, friends in Israel will have better knowledge of the facts about the Taiwan question, understand and support the Chinese government’s efforts to achieve national reunification, and avoid being misled.
The author is the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Israel.