By Li Rong
With less than two weeks at the White House, Mike Pompeo, the "worst Secretary of State" in American history, astonished the world by announcing that the US is lifting "self-imposed" restrictions on its official relationship with Taiwan. It’s widely known that a few anti-China politicians in Washington represented by Pompeo, at the end of their rope, will make a last-ditch, desperate attempt at turning the tables, but that they would be so sinister as to take such a vicious move with the "Taiwan card" is still beyond imagination.
More than 40 years ago, Chinese and American leaders, with utmost wisdom and creativity, reached a consensus on the Taiwan question, which constituted one of the key preconditions for the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two major countries. There is only one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing China. This is an internationally acknowledged fact and an unequivocal commitment made by the US side in the three China-US Joint Communiqués.
It’s easy to destroy a city but hard to build it. In today’s America, a handful of politicians have neither the ability to "build a city" nor the wish to "safeguard it". All they can see is their personal political interests, and all they are capable of is smashing China-US relations, undermining the international order, and sabotaging America’s national credit and reputation, leaving an intractable mess for their successors.
Externally, the current US administration has destroyed the international system that its predecessor s have participated in building, and made itself an enemy of multilateral cooperation. Internally, they instigated opposition at home, which eventually led to the Capitol riots, leaving civilians and police officers dead and injured and the American society more seriously torn apart than ever. These politicians are also intensely loathed in their own country and within the US government.
A drowning man will clutch at a straw. Playing the "China card" has always been considered a “straw” by some ill-intended American politicians to save their political careers. They have interfered continuously in China’s internal affairs concerning Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang to curb China’s development and rake in political capital for themselves by serving as the anti-China vanguards.
They have recently intensified their risky moves on the Taiwan question by signing the so-called Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020, holding the so-called “political-military dialogue” with Taiwan authorities via video link, announcing the planned visit to Taiwan by the US ambassador to the UN, and lifting the restrictions on official contacts between the two sides, etc. The politicians are so desperate on the Taiwan question because they want to divert the domestic conflicts and grab some bargaining chips in hand at the last moment, while the China-US relations and the long-term interests of the Chinese and American people are not something in their consideration.
US-China relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. As the world’s two largest economies, their relationship not only concerns the fundamental interests of both countries and their peoples but also profoundly affects the global welfare and the trend of the world situation.
The Taiwan question is a matter of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and concerns its core interests. The Chinese side will take all necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty and security interests resolutely. If the US side indulges the small group of politicians to politically manipulate the Taiwan question, that will undoubtedly erode the cornerstone of China-US ties, and the politicians themselves, if they are determined to walk down the dead end, are bound to pay a heavy price for their wrongdoings.
