US plays mischief-maker in Taiwan Strait to infuriate China

To no one’s surprise, the United States provided further evidence of playing mischief-maker in other nations’ affairs yesterday when two US warships passed through the Taiwan Strait. It comes less than a month since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and made a number of crass comments to infuriate China.

Washington says the two guided-missile cruisers, the USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville, are demonstrating freedom of navigation through international waters. This may well be the case but considering there are almost 12,000 kilometres (7,252 miles) between the US and Taiwan and China maybe navigating nearer to home would have been a less antagonistic exercise.

Beijing views such actions as provocative and it is hard to disagree. It appears to be yet another unnecessary exercise in shit-stirring.

For the past 70 years, the US has played the proverbial kid at the zoo poking a bear through the bars of a cage.

US interference in other nations’ foreign affairs is a long one, there are too many to mention and they never end well.

The latest is the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It’s not just the innocent people of those two nations suffering and dying because of war. The knock-on effect is a cost of living and fuel crisis. The whole world is suffering.

Russia is seen as the bad guy, and rightly so. It has broken international law but it was goaded into it by the US putting a NATO army on its doorstep.

Now, the US is trying to provoke China by interfering in the mainland’s personal affairs. But not only that, the US seems to have conveniently disregarded the three Sino-US joint communiques signed in the 1970s. By doing so it highlights their total disregard for international law, says Zhang Tengjun, Deputy Director of the Department for Asia-Pacific Studies of the China Institute of International Studies.

Zhang reveals the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) unilaterally adopted by Washington in 1979, seriously violates the three Sino-US joint communiques and severely undermines international law.

Zhang states the TRA is not recognized by the international community or any sovereign state and has no international effect at all.

“The introduction of the act did not accord with international law and the basic norms governing international relations.

“According to international law, domestic law cannot be invoked to justify the non-application of international law. However, Washington has used the TRA, a domestic law of the United States, to regulate its foreign relations and the application of international law, making a grave error in terms of the scope of application and distorting the legal logic.

“The TRA has no authority to regulate US relations with any region that falls within the territorial sovereignty of another country.

“Washington has made a clear commitment in the three Sino-US joint communiques, especially the China-US Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations, that the United States “recognizes the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole legal Government of China” and “acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.”

“It means that Washington recognizes China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and that it should not circumvent the government of the PRC to have direct interactions with Taiwan nor unilaterally enact laws to ‘maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.’”

The TRA states the US will help Taiwan to defend itself in response to any “threat to the security or the social or economic system of the people in Taiwan.”

This is in contradiction to Washington’s commitment made to Beijing in the Shanghai Communique in 1972, in which it “affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all US forces and military installations from Taiwan.”

Zhang said that such an act of tampering with US international obligations has violated the principles of international law.

“With respect to the Taiwan question, the three Sino-US joint communiques are a manifestation of the true intention of the two countries, and the US side has made solemn pledges.

“However, Washington has made a one-sided decision to downgrade the communiques to policy statements, thereby turning them less effective than the TRA, which was approved by Congress and signed by the US president. This is a violation of international law.

“The TRA has revealed Washington’s evil intention to create the erroneous illusion of “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.”

“The historical context of the Taiwan question is clear enough, and so are the facts and status quo that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one and the same China. The 1943 Cairo Declaration, the 1945 Potsdam Declaration, as well as the UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971 all affirmed that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

“The one-China principle, long been a consensus of the global community as well as an international norm, should have been firmly adhered to by all sovereign states in the world, including the United States.

“Such regression in its promises, agreements with Beijing as well as original positions related to Taiwan serves as an astounding example of Washington’s blatant contempt of international law and flagrant infringement on China’s sovereignty.”

SOURCE: BBC English News