Donald Trump has cast doubt on future arms sales to Taiwan and stirred up a debate about independence on the self-governing island.
What is Taiwan independence?
Taiwan’s president William Lai spent much of Sunday trying to explain what he means by “Taiwan independence” and why it does not represent a threat to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has asserted since 1999 that the self-governing island, which is officially called the Republic of China (ROC), is already a sovereign and independent country.
“So everyone can clearly understand that the meaning of the words ‘Taiwan independence’ is actually that Taiwan does not belong to the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” he told a youth forum in Taipei.
“It means that the ROC and the PRC are not subordinate to each other.”
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Later that day, after a national security briefing about Donald Trump’s visit to China last week, Lai posted on Facebook that Taiwan served as a guardian of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the wider region, pointing to Beijing as the main source of regional instability that is trying to change the status quo.
He said that defending the status of the ROC did not amount to pursuing Taiwanese independence and that security co-operation with the United States is crucial for regional stability.
“Taiwan will not provoke or escalate conflicts, but we will not, under pressure, relinquish our national sovereignty and dignity, nor our democratic and free way of life,” he said.
Trump’s remarks about Taiwan after his meetings with Xi Jinping have alarmed Lai’s government and their supporters in Washington, where they are seen as a departure from a hawkish, bipartisan consensus. Xi had pressed Trump to declare his opposition to Taiwan independence and to block a $14 billion weapons package for the island that Congress preapproved last January and has been on his desk since.
“I will say this: I’m not looking to have somebody go independent. And, you know, we’re supposed to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war. I’m not looking for that. I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down,” Trump told Fox News.
Washington has not had formal diplomatic relations with Taipei since 1979, when it recognised the PRC government in Beijing as the sole government of China. But the Taiwan Relations Act and the “Six Assurances” agreed by Ronald Reagan in 1982 oblige the US to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
US governments are also prohibited from consulting Beijing about arms sales to Taiwan, although Trump dismissed that constraint last Friday on the basis that 1982 was a long time ago. He said he had heard Xi out on the issue of arms sales without telling the Chinese leader whether he would approve the new package.
“I’m holding that in abeyance, and it depends on China, it depends,” he said.
“It’s a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly. It’s a lot of weapons.”
Trump last year approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, the biggest in history and Lai claims that the island also needs the $14 billion package to deter Beijing from launching an invasion. The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) is sceptical about the need for such huge arms purchases and Taiwan’s legislature this month passed a scaled-down version of Lai’s defence budget, more than a third smaller than what he requested.
The KMT does not support unification with the mainland under the Chinese Communist Party but favours closer ties with Beijing and its leader, Cheng Li-wun, met Xi last month. The party holds to the so-called 1992 consensus under which Beijing and Taipei agreed that there was only one China but agreed to disagree on what that meant.
This meant that while Taipei and Beijing did not recognise one another’s sovereignty, they did not deny each other’s governing authority. On Sunday night, the KMT demanded that Lai should clarify his position on Taiwan independence and whether the PRC was a foreign country.
“Taiwan is certainly not part of the PRC, yet the two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to ‘one China’,” the party said in a statement.
“Mainland China is not a foreign country to Taiwan.”
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