In August, Jake Sullivan, the Joe Biden administration's top security advisor, paid an official visit to Beijing, during which he reiterated that the US upheld the one-China policy and did not support "Taiwan independence".
Yet for the second time since his visit, the Biden administration has sold weapons to the Chinese island in a show of Washington's support for the secessionist-minded Democratic Progressive Party. The US Defense Department announced on Saturday that the State Department has approved a $1.99 billion arms sale to Taiwan that includes National Advanced Surface-to-air Missile System — the world's first operational network-centric short- to medium-range ground based air defense system — and radar systems.
Although bilateral exchanges in different sectors markedly accelerated after Sullivan's visit, the Biden administration's repeated reneging on its Taiwan-related promises to Beijing undoubtedly consumes the positive energy that has been painstakingly accumulated in recent months.
China's foreign ministry said in a statement released late on Saturday that Beijing strongly condemned and firmly opposed the latest US weapons sales to the island, and it lodged "solemn representations" with Washington.
The US' arms sales to Taiwan severely violate the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982. And the administration's decision to try and use the cross-Strait tensions as a means to contain China undermines the two sides' efforts to stabilize their relations.
In its bid to rapidly supply them with arms, the Biden administration is sending a gravely wrong message to the separatist forces on the island. To the DPP authorities led by Lai Ching-te, any external assistance, be it US arms or the moral support it has received from the European Parliament, which passed a pro-independence resolution related to Taiwan on Thursday, is a straw they can clutch in their efforts to convince the island's residents that they are not alone and can resist the Chinese mainland's pursuit of national reunification.
Since his inauguration on May 20, Lai has tried to cheat the world by packaging his "pro-independence" agenda in the garb of pro-peace, pro-development and pro-democracy rhetoric, seeking to portray Beijing as aggressively taking the initiative to change the status quo of cross-Strait relations.
His scheme is evidenced by his attempts to desinicize the island's history and culture, as proved by his speech on Oct 10, in which he argued the two sides of the Strait do not belong to each other, and his authorities' selected ignorance of the commemoration of the 79th anniversary of China's recovery of sovereignty over Taiwan from Japanese occupation on Friday — Taiwan was seized by Japan in 1895 — an occasion when Taiwan compatriots express their great respect for the Chinese martyrs who fought against Japanese aggression and colonial rule.
The return of Taiwan to its motherland in 1945 was the fruit of the victory won by the Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots, in their struggle against Japanese aggression. That Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory is an incontrovertible historical and legal fact. The island's return to the motherland that year deserves to be commemorated and celebrated by compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
By whitewashing Japanese colonial rule, hyping up the false proposition that the island has an "undetermined status" and seeking to erase the Chinese national identity of the Taiwan people, the DPP authorities, encouraged by their overseas patrons' support, are trying to advance their "pro-independence" cause, pushing the island to the brink of war.
Although the Middle East and Ukraine crises are essentially different from the Taiwan question, which is strictly China's internal affair, the ugly role the US has played in both conflicts with the help of its regional partners should serve to awaken the world to the nature and danger of the collusion between the Lai authorities and Washington.
Sullivan's remarks can now be seen to have been a makeshift choice the Biden administration made in a trying moment for Biden during his reelection bid back then.
The US should not underestimate Beijing's resolve to firmly defend the nation's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. The Foreign Ministry made clear in its statement that Beijing will take countermeasures in response to any dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and resolutely oppose any attempts to separate the island from its motherland.
