No Mr Ambassador, here’s the real truth about China and Taiwan

DOUGLAS HSU

Australian Financial Review: https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/no-mr-ambassador-here-s-the-real-truth-about-china-and-taiwan-20250117-p5l580

Ambassador Xiao Qian, the Chinese Communist Party’s representative in Australia, complained this week that the Australian media had platformed “false voices” on the issue of Taiwan. He went on to outline “Seven truths” which prove, in his mind, that Taiwan is an integral part of China.

Unlike Xiao, we Taiwanese are neither offended nor confused by how Australia’s free press operates, and we value its role in platforming a multiplicity of voices and views – even those of the Chinese Communist Party. Further, his seven points should instead be recognised as cherry-picked half-truths – morsels that have been heavily distorted and repackaged in the service of China’s increasingly hardline expansionism.

Xiao asserted that Taiwan had always been an integral part of Chinese territory. In support of this claim, he stitched together some unconnected pieces of history, while wilfully ignoring the fact that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is about 38 years younger than the Republic of China (Taiwan). In Taiwan, we celebrated our 113th national day in 2024; the People’s Republic of China commemorated 75 years of communist rule that same year.

All that Xiao established was that China had occasionally claimed Taiwan as its territory over the past 1000 years or so, which does not change the fact that Taiwan and China are not connected as a single entity and never really have been.

He goes on to talk about UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, falsely claiming that it determines the status of Taiwan and continuing the PRC’s persistent distortion of this particular document. This is part of a wider effort to force other countries to accept its interpretation of UN Resolution 2758, which has escalated in recent years.

However, many countries have also pushed back on this piece of Communist Party disinformation. In fact, Australia’s Senate passed a motion last August declaring that the UN resolution did not establish the People’s Republic of China’s sovereignty over Taiwan, nor the future status of Taiwan in the United Nations. Furthermore, it stated that the UN resolution must not be used to exclude Taiwan from participating in international forums.

This would seem to contradict Xiao’s assertion that countries all around the world are somehow in step with Beijing’s “One China Principle”. While it is true that most countries have something called a One China Policy, it is utterly misleading to suggest that they are all unanimously in agreement with China’s aggressive claims. The fact is that the One China policies of most countries carefully avoid commenting on Taiwan’s status. Furthermore, the vast majority of these governments have positive, fruitful, and independent relations with Taiwan.

Another fact is that the PRC has become increasingly belligerent over the past decades, lashing out with sanctions, trade bans, and “grey zone” tactics including military and economic coercion and cognitive warfare on a truly appalling scale. They have engaged in routine and breathtakingly irresponsible military incursions by air and sea and military confrontations with Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and of course, Taiwan.

With all this in mind, it’s very difficult to understand Xiao’s claim that Taiwan is responsible for endangering peace in the region. Taiwan is not the one ramming foreign vessels, sabotaging undersea cables, and rattling every sabre it owns. It should be perfectly clear to an unbiased observer which country is, in fact, disrupting the peace and stability of our shared region. Australians can see through the ambassador’s spin.

In fact, President Lai of Taiwan has sought to hold talks with the PRC and has worked hard to improve relations with China. All these attempts have been ignored by the Beijing authorities, so it is somewhat galling to see China’s ambassador referring to President Lai as the source of the current tension.

As is typical of the PRC’s diplomacy, the article ended with a veiled threat, referring to the current positive state of relations between Australia and China as “hard-won”. Of course, it failed to point out that this past hardship was entirely down to China’s sustained economic coercion in years past.

By contrast, Taiwan’s relationship with Australia is one of steadfast friendship. Australia and Taiwan have an excellent relationship, with close trade links and ever-growing cultural and personal exchanges. As fellow democracies and members of the community of free nations, Taiwan does not and will not set obscure political conditions on our friendship. Taiwan values its friendship with like-minded countries like Australia, and looks forward to our future work together to further peace, stability, and prosperity in our shared region.