{"id":74437,"date":"2022-08-11T11:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T01:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=74437"},"modified":"2022-08-11T11:00:17","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T01:00:17","slug":"what-australia-must-do-next-on-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-australia-must-do-next-on-taiwan\/","title":{"rendered":"What Australia must do next on Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Whatever we make of the visit to Taiwan by US congressional leader Nancy Pelosi, one good thing to come out of it is that Australians have a much clearer sense of President Xi Jinping\u2019s\u00a0determination to take Taiwan by force<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope it doesn\u2019t come to that. Still, it\u2019s probably better we get the message sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Now that we have heard the warning, what can Australia do about it?<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s formal responses to Beijing\u2019s military reactions have been tightly constrained by the terms of our relations with China.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressed concern over Beijing\u2019s disproportionate military response to what was, when all is said and done, a civilian initiative on Pelosi\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Richard Marles pointed to China\u2019s violation of the UN-sanctioned law of the sea and to Australia\u2019s long-standing commitment to upholding freedom of navigation and commerce in the region.<\/p>\n

Neither Wong nor Marles questioned China\u2019s claim to the territories of Taiwan\u2014the core claim underpinning Beijing\u2019s determination to take the island by force.<\/p>\n

This is because Australia recognised the Beijing government as the sole legitimate government of China in 1972, and as a condition of recognition declined to recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state.<\/p>\n

Like all serious players, we keep our word. In mounting limited objections to China\u2019s behaviour, Wong and Marles echoed the positions of the EU, the US and all members of the G7 that there has been no change in respective one-China policies or basic positions on Taiwan, despite Beijing\u2019s claims to the contrary. We are sticking to our side of the bargain.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, those agreements focused on territory and said little about people. What do people in Taiwan want?<\/p>\n

Surveys of Taiwanese show a pragmatic preference for retaining the status quo over seeking formal independence, because under the status quo people enjoy civil liberties, rule of law, political rights, economic autonomy and a way of life won through decades of strife and struggle on Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Seeking formal independence would place those rights and liberties at risk, in face of Beijing\u2019s threats of violent retaliation. But so would voluntary unification with the People\u2019s Republic.<\/p>\n

Beijing\u2019s treatment of Hong Kong in 2020<\/a>\u00a0shattered any remaining illusions over the fate of Taiwan under Beijing\u2019s \u2018one country, two systems\u2019 model of inclusion. On Xi\u2019s new model, the people of Taiwan would be \u2018re-educated\u2019\u2014China\u2019s ambassador to France revealed this week\u2014in the style of Mao Zedong\u2019s gulags or Xi\u2019s mass internment camps.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the rub. The CCP says it is prepared to pay any price to fulfil its historical mission of unification with Taiwan, but the one price it won\u2019t consider is the one it would cost to incorporate the territory peacefully: allow people in China to enjoy the same rights and liberties that people have in Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The upshot is that in place of reforming his own country, Xi is preparing to take the island by force against the wishes of the people of Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The message conveyed by his ballistic missiles is that Beijing could fly right over the heads of people on Taiwan and lay claim to their lands without giving them a passing thought.<\/p>\n

In effect, China now seeks \u2018vacant possession\u2019 of the island, in the memorable phrase of journalist Rowan Callick, and Australia never signed on to that.<\/p>\n

Australia did not sign on to a lot of things that China does as a matter of course in the new era of Xi.<\/p>\n

We did not promise to remain silent on Tibet, where the Chinese Communist Party is working energetically to erase the languages, cultures, religion and identities of local communities to retain a stranglehold on their ancestral territories.<\/p>\n

Australia never agreed to Beijing perpetrating cultural genocide against Uyghurs and other minorities to maintain its grip on their historical territories in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

We did not sign on to the crackdown in Hong Kong that put an end to rule of law, civil society and freedom of speech and assembly once Beijing decided to extend direct control over that territory as well.<\/p>\n

In acknowledging Beijing\u2019s one-China position, Australia never conceded Beijing\u2019s right to coerce, corral and \u2018re-educate\u2019 the people of Taiwan. In Beijing\u2019s eyes, territory comes before people, and that was never part of the deal.<\/p>\n

There is much that can be done to help the people of Taiwan without breaking our word.<\/p>\n

Canberra can accelerate negotiations on bilateral economic agreements with Taipei and support its inclusion in multilateral economic agreements. We can actively support its participation in international organisations,\u00a0including key agencies of the World Health Organization.<\/a><\/p>\n

Federal and state governments should give added encouragement to cultural and educational exchanges with Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Australians can reach out to people in Taiwan through their church groups, and by way of community and business associations, trade unions and local governments, to reassure their counterparts in Taiwan that they are not alone in confronting intimidation and interference from the CCP.<\/p>\n

Through travel and everyday communications, we can let the people of Taiwan know we have their backs.<\/p>\n

Australians have as much reason to be wary of China\u2019s communist government as people in Taiwan, because China\u2019s communists have shown they don\u2019t care about people anywhere\u2014not in China, not in Taiwan and not in Australia.<\/p>\n

That much we knew before Pelosi visited Taiwan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whatever we make of the visit to Taiwan by US congressional leader Nancy Pelosi, one good thing to come out of it is that Australians have a much clearer sense of President Xi Jinping\u2019s\u00a0determination to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1023,"featured_media":74439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,52,392,204],"class_list":["post-74437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-taiwan","tag-xi-jinping"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Australia must do next on Taiwan | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-australia-must-do-next-on-taiwan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Australia must do next on Taiwan | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whatever we make of the visit to Taiwan by US congressional leader Nancy Pelosi, one good thing to come out of it is that Australians have a much clearer sense of President Xi Jinping\u2019s\u00a0determination to ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-australia-must-do-next-on-taiwan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-11T01:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-11T01:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1413810471.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Fitzgerald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Fitzgerald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-australia-must-do-next-on-taiwan\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1413810471.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1413810471.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"TAIPEI, TAIWAN - AUGUST 09: The Flag-Lowering Ceremony takes place at Liberty Square on August 09, 2022 in Taipei, Taiwan. 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