Secessionist antics should not be condoned

Multiple senior members of the ruling Lai Ching-te authorities of Taiwan island have engaged in a series of overseas “visits” recently, indicating that the secessionist-minded Democratic Progressive Party authorities are trying to take advantage of the power transition in Washington to make a splash in the world for their push for “Taiwan independence”.

The DPP authorities’ “foreign affairs chief” Lin Chia-lung paid a weeklong visit to Brussels to meet European Union lawmakers and to offer Taiwan’s drone tech to Lithuania; former Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen paid a trip to Canada to accept a so-called democracy leadership award; and Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te is paying ongoing “visits” to three Pacific “diplomatic allies” — during which he is reportedly to have a “technical stop” in or “transit through” the United States, where talks will be the real purpose of his detour.

The three “visits” are characteristic of the Lai authorities in their pursuit of “Taiwan independence” — exploit the island’s technology and economy to advantage for their narrow political ends, mount the moral high ground of “democracy” to make the island part of the West’s “value alliance”, and always curry their foreign patrons’ support.

But these seemingly carefully planned moves are just a veneer of “nonofficial contacts” to try and muffle Beijing’s words and blind the world to their “provocative” and “pro-independence” nature, so as to further strengthen the island’s “presence” on the world stage as not only an economic powerhouse and a tech pioneer, but more importantly a “democracy” in its own right.

These are indispensable, as Lai’s “secessionist” framework speeches on May 20 and Oct 10 indicate, to forging the “legitimacy” of the island’s “noble independent” status from the Chinese mainland.

Leaving no room for any possible misinterpretation of those colluding parties’ overtly and covertly tangoing with the Lai authorities in these “pro-independence” pantomimes, the Chinese government said it opposes any form of official interaction between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic ties with Beijing. It has called on the relevant parties to fully recognize the extreme importance and high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, strictly abide by the one-China principle, stop any form of official interaction with the Taiwan authorities, and stop sending wrong signals to “Taiwan separatist forces”.

Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. The Chinese government has always firmly opposed any form of official exchanges between countries with diplomatic ties with Beijing and the Taiwan region, including the signing of any agreement with sovereignty implications or of an official nature that de facto creates a “one China, one Taiwan” falsehood violating the one-China principle.

The one-China principle is the basic norm of international relations and the general consensus of the international community. The Lai authorities’ political manipulation and provocations through the aforementioned tricks will never succeed, nor can they alter the firm pattern of the international community’s adherence to the one-China principle. They cannot stop the historical trend that China will eventually reunify.

The separatist acts of the “Taiwan independence” elements are incompatible with peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. If those external forces giving their nod and a wink to the antics of the Lai authorities really want to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait as they claim, they should fully recognize the “Taiwan independence” nature of the DPP authorities led by Lai, handle the Taiwan question with great caution and due prudence, and support China’s peaceful reunification.

Editorial, China Daily