The crisis between China and Taiwan
What is the importance of Taiwan and why is America afraid of restoring Chinese sovereignty over it?
Tensions between China and the autonomous island of Taiwan have returned to the top of the atmosphere after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw a ball of fire to ignite the crisis again after her (provocative) visit, despite Beijing's threats, but why did the United States enter the line of the raging crisis again and what is the importance of Taiwan . Why does Washington support efforts to separate it permanently from China ?
China considers Taiwan part of its territory and seeks to restore economic, political and military sovereignty over it. It has vowed to take it back by force if necessary, although Taiwan's leaders have insisted that the islands are more than just a breakaway Chinese province, considering it a sovereign state.
What is the importance of Taiwan and why is the United States afraid of China's return to the island of Taiwan?
Amidst a cloudy atmosphere with the possibility of political storms that would burden the inherently precarious global situation, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plane landed at Songshan Airport in Taipei on the island of Taiwan, Tuesday evening (2/8/2022 AD), despite China's threats of the consequences of this visit, which fuels tension Relations between Washington and Beijing against the background of the US support for the separatists hostile to the ruling Communist Party in the People's Republic of China.
Where is Taiwan located ?
Taiwan is a group of autonomous islands located in the east of the Asian continent, in the eastern part of the China Sea, overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the east and separated by the Taiwan Strait to the west from the Chinese province of Fujian.
Taiwan includes an archipelago of more than 80 islands, including large and small, the largest of which is the island of Taiwan, which was characterized by the group of islands by naming the whole by the part, and its total area is 36 thousand square kilometers.
Strategic importance :
Strategically, Taiwan falls within what the United States calls the “first island chain,” which includes a list of territories (friendly to the United States) due to the strategic importance of the foreign policy of the United States.
Why is America afraid of China's restoration of Taiwan ?
In the context of the United States of America undermining the influence of China, which it considers a competitor for global influence, the United States of America attaches great importance to the island of Taiwan, due to its geographical location . a threat to its military bases as far away as Guam and Hawaii, but China insists that its intentions are good . it also threatens to restore China's full sovereignty over the island. The US military presence in the China Sea will be in danger .
History of the island of Taiwan :
As long as the island of Taiwan was under the full control of China, especially since the beginning of the 17th century (1600-1700 AD) before China was forced in 1895 to cede the island to Japan after defeating it In the First Sino-Japanese War.
China regained its sovereignty over the island after Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945 AD but the civil war that erupted in China as a result of the political conflict between the Nationalist government led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong, led to instability . With him from the Nationalist Party - known as the Kuomintang - to Taiwan to make it the seat of their government, where they ruled for the next several decades The People's China, which was founded in the era of Mao in 1949 AD, emphasizes .
What does the current political scene in Taiwan look like?
Taiwan's current president, Tsai Ing-wen, belongs to the (Democratic Progressive Party), which is hostile to the ruling Communist Party in the Republic of China, and the ruling Communist Party in the People's Republic of China, which tends towards the final formal independence from China. Taiwan has its own constitution, democratically elected leaders and about 300,000 active soldiers in its armed forces
What is the significance of Taiwan ?
Economically, Taiwan is one of the most important countries in the technological field, as a lot of daily electronic equipment is operated around the world from phones to laptops, watches and game consoles with chips made in Taiwan.
At the international level... who recognizes Taiwan?
Taiwan is facing a major political crisis as it is a politically unrecognized state. Only 21 out of 196 countries around the world have recognized its autonomy and secession, in addition to the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign state .
The first country to recognize Taiwan's sovereignty was the Vatican in 1942, the last of which was Saint Lucia in 2007. Taiwan has very limited recognition and most of those recognized by very island states and most of those recognized by small island states have no influence on world politics .
Until 2021, only 15 countries recognized the independence of Taiwan, including Saint Kitts and Nevis, Nicaragua, Palau, Paraguay, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Tuvalu, Guatemala, Haiti, Belize, Honduras, and the Marshall Islands .
China is putting enormous diplomatic pressure on other countries not to recognize Taiwan or to undertake any policies involving such recognition .
Militarily..... the balance of power is tipping the scales of the red dragon .
Experts believe that the island, which has a population of about 23.8 million, will not withstand the Chinese effort to regain it, whether China takes military action or limits its efforts to achieving (reunification) by non-military means such as strengthening economic relations .
Some Western experts expect that Taiwan at best aims to slow down any Chinese attack by trying to prevent the landing of Chinese amphibious forces on its shores and launching guerrilla attacks while waiting for outside help, as it counts on that help coming from the United States, which sells weapons to Taiwan.
Chinese war strategy:
China's war-fighting strategy known as "denial of access" is based on the ability to project conventional military power from several thousand miles away with the aim, in particular, of preventing the US military, in particular, from effectively countering any Chinese attack on Taiwan, which would increase the risks War and escalation .
The beginning of the crisis :
Military experts have warned that Pelosi's trip could risk sparking an armed conflict, a political and military crisis more complex than the Russia-Ukrainian crisis, in which Beijing's leadership will be more aggressive and less tolerant of US provocations and challenges .
Washington on the crisis line :
Washington entered the crisis line after Donald Trump won the 2016 American elections, when the United States pledged to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons, stressing that any attack by China would raise great concern.
On the other hand, throughout 2018, China increased its pressure on international companies, forcing them to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites, and these companies threatened to prevent them from doing business in China if they did not comply
In September 2021, Washington provoked China after Washington sent a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the island in the first official visit of its kind in decades damage to Sino-American relations.
Chinese President Xi Jiang has warned Taiwan that his country will not give up the option of using military force to re-establish its sovereignty over the island of Taiwan, which has been ruled by an anti-Beijing regime since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
In his speech on the occasion of the "40th Anniversary of the Political Statement on Taiwan," Jinping said :
"The reunification should take place within the framework of the one-China principle, which recognizes that Taiwan is part of China."
This was rejected by supporters of Taiwan independence.
Why does China want to annex independent Taiwan by force?
On December 25, 2021, the Chinese Defense Minister threatened that "the army will move at all costs to thwart attempts to separate the self-ruled island of Taiwan," which Beijing says is an inalienable part of China .
Tensions between Taiwan and China have increased after the United States, which supports Taiwan, imposed sanctions on the Chinese military recently, along with the trade war between the two countries and Taiwan and China's increasing strengthening of their military postures in the South China Sea.
In October 2021, the United States also sent two warships through the Taiwan Strait in the second operation of its kind in the same year.
Relations between China and Taiwan have deteriorated further since Tsai Ing-wen assumed the presidency of Taiwan in 2016. She belongs to the Democratic Progressive Party, which tends to independence.
it a province that is in rebellion against the authority of the Greater People's Republic of China and "should not enjoy any kind of independence". As for Taiwan, it considers that it is entitled to rule both Taiwan and the People's Republic of China.
The Chinese president had said in a speech that : "The two parties - in reference to China and Taiwan - represent part of the Chinese family," and that the demands for Taiwan independence were an opposite current of history with no future ahead.
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