Behind the escalation around Taiwan, Xi Jinping’s desire for a “complete reunification” of China under his reign – Le Monde

Chinese People’s Liberation Army aircraft during a combat training exercise around the island of Taiwan, August 7, 2022. LI BINGYU / AP Chinese military maneuvers around and over Taiwan began after the visit at the beginning of August by Nancy Pelosi, President of the American House of Representatives, had barely ended when a new delegation from Washington landed on the island. The arrival on Sunday, August 14, of five members of Congress led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey provoked new anger from Beijing, which again carried out important maneuvers. According to the Taiwanese authorities, fifteen Chinese planes crossed, this time, the median line which is considered to be the unofficial border between China and Taiwan – Beijing has never recognized it. These tensions mark a real escalation in relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and, therefore, between Beijing and Washington. Read also: Understanding the origin of the fragile status quo around the Taiwan Strait These visits by parliamentarians are not unusual. Over the past ten years, according to a count by the Taiwanese authorities, 71 American elected officials had visited the island during Barack Obama’s second presidency (2012-2016), 35 during Donald Trump’s mandate and 31 since his arrival in Joe Biden’s White House. But in the context of growing rivalry between the United States and China, they take on another dimension. “China believes that the traditional one-China policy is evolving into a ‘one China, one Taiwan’ policy. This is not a relevant reading of the American vision of Taiwan but it explains why China signals more clearly than ever its will to attack, notes the former Australian prime minister, sinologist Kevin Rudd, in the Wall Street Journal. . The desire of certain American elected officials to renounce Washington’s “strategic ambiguity” with regard to Taiwan and to recognize the island as a “major non-NATO ally” and to supply it with weapons accordingly can only reinforce the China in its convictions. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Faced with the Chinese military threat, Taiwan chooses asymmetric warfare The hawks are on the rise In China, the debates are obviously less transparent but everything indicates that, there too, the hawks have on the rise. In any case, the censorship lets the nationalists regret, for example, that the Chinese aviation did not prevent Nancy Pelosi from landing in Taiwan at the beginning of August. And the Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, allows himself to say that once reunification is complete, it will be necessary to “re-educate” the Taiwanese, the term used by Beijing to define its policy with regard to the Uighurs in Xinjiang. President Xi Jinping did not comment on the subject. As every year at the same time, the Chinese leaders are also invisible. They are most likely gathered in Beidahe, this seaside resort located 200 kilometers east of Beijing where they prepare for the start of the school year during meetings as informal as they are secret. This is undoubtedly where the final decisions are being made in view of the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party which, this fall, will grant a third term as general secretary to Xi Jinping. You have 44.48% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.