Despite strong opposition and serious warnings from the Chinese side, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited the Taiwan region of China, sending a very wrong signal to the secessionist forces of “Taiwan Independence”. The visit was a botched political farce, it was also a deliberate and dangerous provocation. Countermeasures subsequently taken by the Chinese side in order to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity are necessary, fair, reasonable and legal.
Soon after Pelosi’s visit, more than 170 countries had a fair voice, reaffirming their firm adherence to the One China policy, demonstrating understanding and supporting the Chinese position. However, some anti-China forces flout the facts and ignore deliberate US provocations. They make unbridled and unfair criticism of countermeasures that have been taken by China properly, they even publicly applauded the “Taiwan Independence” initiatives. As a Chinese proverb says: “Rumors stop with the wise, and justice is in the hearts of the people”. So that more Portuguese friends know the truth, I bring to your attention some typical falsehoods that I will try to refute based on facts.
FALSE I: “Taiwan’s status is indeterminate”
REALITY: There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan has been an inalienable part of Chinese territory since ancient times, which is not only a historical fact, but also has a solid jurisprudential basis.
At the end of World War II, the Cairo Declaration of 1943 clearly stipulates that the Chinese territories stolen by Japan, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands inclusive, will be returned to China, which was reaffirmed in the Potsdam Declaration in 1945. Already in 1971 , United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 defined the government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate government representing all of China. The One China principle is the consensus of the international community and a basic norm of international relations.
181 countries have established diplomatic relations with China based on this principle. Even though Taiwan and the mainland of the motherland have not yet reunited, there has never been any division in China’s sovereignty and territory, and there has never been any change regarding the fact that both sides of the Strait belong to one China.
FALSE II: “The responsibility for changing the status quo of the Taiwan Strait lies with China”
REALITY: The United States and the secessionist forces of “Taiwan Independence” were the ones who started to disturb the peace in the Taiwan Strait and destabilized the region. Taiwan has never been a country, there is only one China, and both sides of the Strait are from the same country. This is Taiwan’s status quo from antiquity to the present.
In 1978, the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of China-US Diplomatic Relations clearly reaffirmed that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing all of China, and Taiwan is a part of China. This constitutes the Taiwan Strait status quo which has never changed in recent decades.
However, it is true that this status quo has been broken. It was not China who changed it, but the United States and the secessionist forces of “Taiwan Independence”.
In 2000, the United States placed the so-called “Taiwan Relations Act”, which was unilaterally invented, above the three China-US Joint Communiqués. And yet, in recent years, the United States has publicly added the clandestine “Six Guarantees to Taiwan” to its account of the One China policy.
After coming to power, the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan advanced with the “Progressive Independence of Taiwan”, largely practices “desinization” and on several occasions intended to create “two Chinas” or “one China and one Taiwan”.
All these actions are to openly provoke and invalidate the One China principle.
Some Americans have dramatized the “Military Threat from China” around the Taiwan issue. This is, in essence, a pretext to increase its own military budget, expand its military power, and to interfere in Asia-Pacific regional affairs.
The US claims that Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was a “private visit” and tries to cover it up. This is a dangerous step in her connivance with the secessionist forces of “Taiwan Independence”.
FALSE III: “Nancy Pelosi’s visit to China’s Taiwan region represents support for Taiwan’s democracy and upholds democratic values”
REALITY: What Nancy Pelosi did was to infringe on Chinese sovereignty, destabilize the Taiwan Strait and hold back development in China under the guise of “democracy”. It is simply political manipulation, which has once again exposed the ugly face of the US as a false democracy in true hegemony.
Democracy is a common value of all humanity. It is a right of the people of all countries, rather than being the exclusive and selfish interests of just certain countries.
Whether or not a country is democratic must be judged by the people of the country itself and not by a minority of foreigners. Nancy Pelosi, who considers herself a champion of “freedom, democracy and human rights”, judges the democracy of other countries according to her personal tastes, and promotes the so-called “democracy against authoritarianism” narrative in the international community. This, in fact, is to use ideology and values as an instrument to conquer one’s own interests based on partisanship and geopolitics, with the stubbornness of the Cold War mentality.
Over the years, the US has labelled, politicized, and instrumentalized democracy, instigated “Color Revolutions,” and waged wars and military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of injuries, and tens of millions. of displaced people.
FALSE IV: “China’s military exercises around Taiwan are an overreaction, and have escalated the situation”
REALITY: Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan resulted in serious consequences, seriously violated the One China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, had a major impact on the political foundations of Sino-US relations, severely infringed on sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, and undermined peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, sending an absolutely wrong signal to the secessionist forces of “Taiwan Independence”.
Naturally, the Chinese side responded firmly. Our position is justified, reasonable and legal, our measures are firm, effective and proportionate, and our military exercises are public, transparent and professional, which correspond to domestic and international law as well as international practice. The aim is to warn the perpetrators and punish the secessionist forces of “Taiwan Independence”.
At the same time, we are also upholding international law and the basic norms of international relations, especially non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, the most important norm contained in the UN Charter. If this principle is ignored and abandoned, the world will revert to the law of the jungle, and the United States will bully and oppress other countries even more, especially small and medium-sized countries, from its so-called position of strength.
We cannot allow this to happen, and all countries must unite so that this does not happen and that the progress of human civilization does not recede.
FALSE V: Taiwan will be the next Ukraine
REALITY: Taiwan is not Ukraine, the nature of the Taiwan issue is completely different from the Ukraine issue. The two issues do not compare. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, and it is absolutely different from Ukraine, which is a sovereign state.
Certain anti-China forces and “Taiwan Independence” secessionists purposely compare the Taiwan question to that of Ukraine. The intention is malicious in order to create a new crisis in the Taiwan Strait and serve its geostrategic and economic interests at the expense of the welfare of people on both sides of the Strait and regional peace and stability.
The Taiwan issue is China’s internal affair, where no outside intervention is allowed. The determination and will of the Chinese people to uphold national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unshakable. Whoever plays with fire on the Taiwan issue will end up getting burned.
We hope that our Portuguese friends will come to recognize the absurdity and serious consequences of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, and that they will not be misled by the falsehoods against the One China principle, that they will continue to follow a fair position and adhere to this principle, in order to preserve the sublime cause of Sino-Portuguese friendship through the practice of actions.
*Charga d’Affaires a.i – Chinese Embassy in Portugal
