The behind the 1996 China-Taiwan missile test-fire in Taipei was then Taiwan’s President Lee visit to the US in 1995 to attend an alumni celebration at Cornell University... Joe Biden had said the US would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan if China decides to invade China is furious with the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, an island nation that China claims to be its territory. Taiwan claims to be an independent country with strong democratic ideals.
Taiwan, known as ‘Republic of China’, was ruled by the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) for a long time. KMT ruled mainland China from 1928 to 1949. It was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the civil war, and fled and formed an exiled government in Taiwan in 1949 and ruled the island territory under martial law till 1987 and claimed to represent the whole China. Taiwan, and not the mainland China ruled by the CCP, was part of the United Nations and its Security Council for many years. That changed in 1971, the United Nations General Assembly voted to replace Taiwan with Mainland China as its member. On January 1, 1979, the US started formal diplomatic relations with China under One China Policy that came at the cost of Taiwan’s diplomatic alliance with the US.
Mainland China calls Taiwan a renegade province and has not shied away from issuing threats to capture the island nation. The CCP has used mainland China’s economic and military power to force other countries to end their alliance and diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Today, China has diplomatic ties with 178 while Taiwan is by only 14 small nations. Russia attacking Ukraine, the world is busy assessing if China can attack Taiwan as well. But China’s might miscalculate the facts — of ignoring the past and of undermining the US-Taiwan relations, something that has again been strengthened by Nancy Pelosi’s visit, the third senior most US official after US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
WHY IS CHINA SO DESPERATE?
Ideologically, the guiding principle of the CCP is One China Policy. It has been the cornerstone of China’s domestic and international politics since 1949. No Taiwan, No Xinjiang, No Tibet, Just China. For the rest of the world, China says Taiwan is a renegade province not to be engaged politically and economically. China-Taiwan reunification is core of the CCP’s political vision and internal political tussle. Xi Jinping needs to take a heroic action to silent his rivals in the party and win backing for his third presidential term later this year.
Economically, Taiwan is a world leader in high-tech industry and a dominant power in semiconductor business. Taiwan’s semiconductor players even outshine the US in advanced fabrication technologies. Taiwan under mainland China can solve the semiconductor crisis China is facing after the Washington hostility. China, world’s largest buyer of semiconductors, depends on the US, Taiwan, South Korea and other countries for semiconductor supply as the domestic industry has failed to take off in spite of years of efforts. Taiwan and South Korea, in fact, control 70% of semiconductor manufacturing globally.
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