Official US Taiwan visit vexes Beijing

China opposes the “Taiwan Travel Act” and urges the United States to adhere to the oneChina policy and stop any official ties with Taiwan, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Hua Chunying made the remark in response to a planned visit by a US diplomat to the island. Media reports say that Alex Wong, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Department of State, will visit Taiwan from March 20 to 22.

It would be the first official visit since US President Donald Trump signed the act on Friday. It encourages visits between the United States and Taiwan at all levels.

Trump had pledged shortly after taking office to support the one-China policy.

According to Hua, China has initiated negotiations on the issue and urged the US to adhere to the three joint communiques between China and the US.

She also urged the US to halt official contacts with Taiwan and deal with Taiwan issues discreetly to avoid harming Sino-US relations and crossStraits relations.

On Tuesday, An Fengshan, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, condemned the recent “Taiwan independence” remarks made by the island’s executive head.

An was responding to Taiwan-related remarks made by the island’s “premier”, Lai Ching-te. Lai called the island province a “sovereign and independent state”.

“The remark that mentioned ‘Taiwan independence’ was a flagrant provocation to the cross-Straits relations,” An said, adding that Taiwan separatists will suffer by their own hands.

“The mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. Taiwan is an inseparable part of China and has never been and will not become a country,” An said.

The mainland has always held that the one-China policy is the political foundation for cross-Straits relations.

President Xi Jinping vowed on Tuesday to defeat secessionist attempts in his speech at the closing meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress annual session.

“Chinese people have the resolve, the confidence and the ability to defeat secessionist attempts in any form,” he said.

“Any actions and tricks to split China are doomed to fail. And these separatists’ actions will be met with the condemnation of the people and the punishment of history.”

Premier Li Keqiang warned on Tuesday at a news conference that China will not tolerate the attempts of any external force to use Taiwan as a card to cause difficulties for cross-Straits relations.

Regarding the new US law, the Chinese embassy in Washington said, “China is strongly dissatisfied with that and firmly opposes it.”

“The relevant clauses of the ‘Taiwan Travel Act’ severely violate the one-China principle, the political foundation of the China-US relationship, and the three joint communiques between China and the US,” according to a statement released by the embassy.

“We urge the US to adhere to the one-China policy and honor the commitments it made in the three joint communiques and to stop pursuing any official ties with Taiwan or improving its current relations with Taiwan in any substantive way,” it said.

Ni Yongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies, said that trying to hold China in check with the “Taiwan card” is useless.

Zhou Jin contributed to the story.

Not a single inch of Chinese territory can be separated from China, and any attempt to divide the nation will be crushed, President Xi Jinping said at the closing of the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, on Tuesday.

We should continue to stick to the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, promote the peaceful development of crossStraits relations, and expand the economic and cultural exchanges between the two sides so that both sides can avail of the opportunities created by the Chinese mainland’s economic development, improve their well-being and advance the “peaceful reunification of the motherland”, Xi said.

The message is clear: the mainland seeks peaceful and prosperous cross-Straits ties but only under the one-China principle, and it will not tolerate any secessionist moves.

However, ignoring Beijing’s resolve and warning, US President Donald Trump signed the so-called Taiwan Travel Act on March 16, which encourages Washington to send officials “of all levels” to meet their “counterparts” in Taiwan, and vice versa.

The US act is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the three Sino-US joint communiqués, which form the basic political foundation for ChinaUS ties. Washington’s provocative act will not only worsen Sino-US relations but also create many uncertainties across the Straits. In fact, by tacitly encouraging “Taiwan independence”, the US has dealt a very serious blow to Beijing-Washington ties.

Since the Beijing-Washington relationship is one of the most important in the world today, any change in it may affect the situation not only in the Asia-Pacific region but also in the rest of the world. The Trump administration, by not respecting China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, has taken a dangerous path which could greatly damage the strategic and political trust between the two sides.

Trump’s endorsement of the Taiwan Travel Act follows his attempts to take new trade measures against China, and either of his actions could become a major turning point in Sino-US relations.

That Taiwan is the primary determinant of national unity and of core national interest can never be overemphasized. The Trump administration is sure to find, sooner rather than later, that using the island as a political bargaining chip to settle trade disputes is a great mistake. China has zero-tolerance for any attempt to undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Furthermore, if the Taiwan Travel Act prompts the Taiwan leader to visit the US in the future, Sino-US ties would suffer a great setback. That BeijingWashington ties went into deep freeze when former island leader Lee Teng-hui “officially visited” the US in 1995 is an apt example of what the US act could lead to.

The US move has also sent the wrong signals to “secessionists” in Taiwan, who could cause political turmoil by calling for “Taiwan independence”. This will not only damage the roots of BeijingWashington ties but also raise a geopolitical storm in the Asia-Pacific, as Beijing has not ruled out taking military action to reunify the island with the motherland once the island authorities cross the redline.

The Tsai Ing-wen administration on the island wants greater say in the international community, and the Trump administration is fishing in troubled waters by passing an act that is designed to grant the island an even bigger say.

However, China will crush any efforts to separate any part of the country, and any secessionist attempt by Tsai with the US support is doomed to failure. The Trump administration should appreciate the importance of the one-China principle in Sino-US relations, and not neutralize the progress the two sides have made in the last few decades. And Taiwan, as Xi said on Tuesday, will face the “punishment of history” for any attempt at separatism.

Therefore, the only choice for the US is to push the act aside, in practice.

The Trump administration is sure to find ... that using the island as a political bargaining chip to settle trade disputes is a great mistake.