Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California’s Simi Valley on Wednesday. Although it has officially been a private meeting, no one has missed the symbolism. McCarthy – a staunch critic of China – has met with Tsai, as has his predecessor Nancy Pelosi, who traveled to Taipei last year on a visit to which Beijing responded with military maneuvers and missile launches that subjected Taiwan to a partial blockade that lasted several days.
On this occasion, the visit has been, once again, criticized by China. It does not appear that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s justification that it was a private trip made much difference to the Chinese government, which does not recognize Taiwan’s independence and has not relinquished its right to invade that country. Tsai and McCarthy also held the meeting when relations between the US and China are at their worst in five decades.
Tsai landed in Los Angeles after returning from a trip to Belize and Guatemala, two of the 13 countries that still recognize Taiwan. But already on his outward journey he caused some controversy by making a technical stopover in New York.
At the same time that Tsai was in the US, her predecessor, Ma Ying-Jeou, was in China, on a visit meant to celebrate ties between the two countries. Thus, the travel agenda of the former Taiwanese president and the current president is also a reflection of the internal divisions in the country over its policy in relation to China. Some divisions that go beyond pure nationalism since Taiwan, unlike China, is a democracy.
The meeting comes at a time of proximity between Taiwan and the United States that had not been seen since Washington recognized the People’s Republic of China and withdrew its diplomatic representation from Taipei in 1979. General Michael Minijan, one of the top officials of the Force Aérea, has written that “my gut tells me that the US and China [will go to war] in 2025,” in an internal document to his subordinates that was later leaked to the media.
The Marine Corps (the Marines) have set out as a mission for the 21st century to defend the air and naval space east of China, in a wide arc that goes from Japan to Vietnam. Meanwhile, most of the Pacific countries close to China – such as Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam – are increasing their defense spending and strengthening their military ties with the US. Honduras’s decision to withdraw its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in favor of China last week has been widely reported in the US press.
The meeting also illustrates the apparent contradictions in Joe Biden’s China policy. On the one hand, Washington is building a retaining wall against China that also includes technology, as evidenced by its decision – joined by countries like Japan and the Netherlands – to ban the export of advanced chips to Beijing. . But on the other, Biden’s team is desperate to maintain diplomatic channels with Beijing. And there is China who has no interest in closer relations.
The State Department, for example, has been trying for weeks to arrange a visit by Blinken to Beijing, after the initial trip was put on hold due to the Chinese spy balloon incident over the United States in March. But China is stalling the US. Other trips by the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce, Janet Ayelen and Gina Raimondo; respectively, they sleep the sleep of the just before the total disinterest of China.
All of this reveals that the points of contact between the two countries are dwindling, and that China is openly challenging the hegemonic role of the United States in the world. The presentation of Beijing’s peace plan for the war in Ukraine has been seen in Washington as another step in this direction, since for the US it is simply an initiative aimed at reinforcing the image of China as a mediator in the world in development paths and not a realistic project to end the conflict.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
