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Herald Correspondent
A few days ago, the island nation of Nauru announced that it was severing relations with Taiwan and establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
The development was as significant as it was symbolic: the Micronesian island’s decision came hard on the heels of elections in China’s Taiwan region which were won by a United States-backed “pro-independence” party and its leader, Lai Ching-te.
The win by the Democratic Progressive Party was not met with any cheers from the international community, which recognises that Taiwan is not a country but an inalienable part of China.
Zimbabwe is among the vast majority of countries in the international community that recognises the One-China Principle while on the African continent, only one country — Eswatini — remains tied to Taiwan diplomatically.
The decision by Nauru to sever ties with Taiwan means that Taiwan’s allies now number no more than a dozen globally, and ever-decreasing, hollowing out its claim to legitimacy and sovereignty or future prospects thereof.
China states that Taiwan was never, and will never be, an independent country and its reunification within the Chinese nation is well on course to be achieved in this century.
During a speech at the opening of the year, President Xi Jinping emphasised that the reunification is a historical inevitability.
“China will surely be reunified,” President Xi said.
“All Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he added.
In December, during the meeting with US leader Joe Biden, President Xi also told America that the reunification would be achieved. One of the key outcomes of that fraught summit of the two leaders was US stated commitment to the One-China Principle.
Bubble
Western media have tried to amplify, elevate and inflate Lai’s victory as a huge historical marker and defining moment, but the truth is that it is nothing but a bubble with little weight. It certainly barely registered on the global geopolitical Richter Scale.
Instead, what is weighty and significant are the historical, legal and moral causes of the One-China Principle, which the overwhelming majority of the international community continues to observe and uphold.
This even applies to the United States of America despite its knack for pulling mischief and provocations to test China’s resolve.
The prevailing consensus of the international community is that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China and will remain so, being at the core of Asian giant’s core interests.
History and international legal frameworks buttress this position.
Some 80 years ago in Cairo, China, the United States and Britain issued the Cairo Declaration, which clearly stipulated that all the territories Japan had stolen from China, including Taiwan, should be restored to China.
Later, the Article Eight of the Potsdam Proclamation, which was jointly issued by China, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union in 1945, required that the “terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out,” and then Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and declared unconditional surrender.
The series of documents with international legal effect formed an integral part of the post-war international order, and laid the historical and legal foundation that Taiwan is an inalienable territory of China.
Now, the majority of the international community affirm the One-China Principle.
This is not going to change soon.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said last Sunday that the result of the leadership election in the Taiwan region cannot change the basic fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China.
He dismissed prospects of the so-called Taiwanese independence, and outlined measures to forestall that including punishing trouble-makers.
Yet, the international community holds an important remit of rejecting the so-called independence, based on firm principles and commitments.
Said Wang: “We believe that the international community, in accordance with the one-China principle, will continue to support the just cause of the Chinese people in striving for national reunification and opposing the separatist activities of seeking Taiwan’s independence.”
China’s allies such as Zimbabwe must reaffirm support for China’s One China Principle and assert that they stand with China.
It is only predictable that very soon Taiwan will try to bring attention to itself through grandstanding and other provocative acts to try to impress its allies such as the United States like it did in 2023, which saw Taiwanese leaders making “stop-overs” in the US while a delegation of US lawmakers made a visit to the region.
Those antics must be rejected, and China will stand resolutely on principle and invoke strong warnings and countermeasures where necessary.
Online Reporter