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Even before the waterways of the Strait of Hormuz hindered the bitter conflict of the recent US/Israeli war against Iran, many Western experts set their calculations on the alleged conflagrations looming over another strait, the Mainland China Strait and its island region of Taiwan, which connects the South and East China Seas. These are the busiest shipping routes in the world, through which half of the world’s container traffic is conducted. By galvanizing separatist forces in Chinese Taiwan and preparing them for the fateful adventure of seeking “independence” and positioning the island as an outpost to contain China, the Strait has been projected as a geopolitical hotbed designed entirely to unravel China’s development trajectory.
Africa has historically maintained that the Taiwan issue is China’s internal affairs and has never wavered in its belief in China’s ability to resolve its major national issue, left unresolved by its own history. From supporting the iconic United Nations Resolution 2758 to practicing the “one China policy” that resolutely recognizes that there is only one China in the world and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s sovereign expression, 53 African countries have demonstrated boundless optimism about China’s peaceful reunification. Africa was right, even sooner or later.
Earlier this month, China’s two traditional political parties, the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Party, met in Beijing to reaffirm the strategic centrality of cross-Strait dialogue, communication and engagement to reach the 1992 consensus on the “One China Principle.” The three-day visit of the chairwoman of the largest party in Taiwan’s regional parliament, Cheng Li-Wun, to the mainland, culminating in her meeting with the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, was an unmistakable signal that instead of a strait fight invented by Western experts, it is about peaceful exchanges, shared prosperity and cross-strait dialogue among all Chinese people.
While the KMT leader’s historic trip to the mainland was underway, a bipartisan delegation of US senators visited Taipei late last month to urge the island’s politicians to come together and approve increased military spending, arguing that “deterrence is the most important thing we can build on to prevent a conflict that would be devastating for the region and the world.” Although framed as security cooperation, the 40 billion special defense budget, which the Americans are pushing the Taipei authority to shoulder, is actually based on fear, amplifying confrontation and raising even higher risks in the straits. In reality, Washington would never care about the well-being of Taiwan’s residents.
However, Cheng Li-Wun’s visit to the mainland, just like former KMT Chairman Lien Chan’s historic “peace trip” in 2005, opened a brilliant chapter of cross-strait dialogue between China’s two political parties. In 2005, the two parties broke the long-standing ice and have enabled high-level dialogue since 1949. In the historic meeting, the two parties affirmed their commitment to the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and also endorsed the 1992 consensus, while rejecting “Taiwan independence.”
This time, the KMT leader’s visit to the mainland comes against the backdrop of cross-Strait tensions fueled and exacerbated by external forces and separatist voices on the island, with the visit making a simple yet vital message blatantly and graphically clear; Efforts by external forces in cahoots with local separatists to inflame cross-Strait confrontation would end in failure. In many respects the KMT leader’s trip amplifies the shared desire for peace, development, exchange and cooperation on both sides of the strait and demonstrates Chinese wisdom to address the vexing national issue, a remnant of their history without falling prey to hostile external maneuvers.
Cheng Li-Wun, who during her campaign to become Kuomintang president said she wanted “all Taiwanese to be able to proudly and confidently say ‘I am Chinese,’” made the final leg of her visit to the mainland in Beijing and was received by the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a powerful symbol that China’s two major political parties inherited may have their differences on a number of other issues, but national reconciliation and reunification are a common ground, which does not allow external obstacles. During the meeting, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that “despite the vicissitudes of history, Taiwan’s compatriots have never forgotten that their roots are on the mainland, that their hearts are with the motherland, that their souls belong to the Chinese nation… the Chinese roots and the Chinese soul shared by all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation who come from our bloodlines are rooted in history and are imprinted in our hearts.” CCP added that “no matter how the international landscape or the situation in the Taiwan Strait may evolve, the overall direction of human development and progress will not change, and the great tide of compatriots on both sides of the Strait coming closer, connecting and uniting will not change.”
President Li-Wun in turn stated that it cannot be denied that, in over a century of interaction, the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party has seen twists and turns. Yet what we have both pursued has always been to lead the Chinese nation from decline to rejuvenation,” and indicated that “cross-strait peace and reconciliation should be only the starting point of the joint efforts of two sides, and urged that the great “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” must be a shared rejuvenation for the people on both sides of the strait.”
The echoes of the historic meeting between the CCP and the KMT and its overarching theme of shared vision and determination for a rejuvenation of the Chinese nation would strike homely among the Chinese people across the straits, but it would be an ultimate nightmare for Washington and other Western capitals, where playing the “Taiwan card” is a routine policy to contain and constrain China. US President Donald Trump, still reeling from the strategic debacle of Iran’s reckless regime-change war and visiting Beijing next month, would find the edges of the traditional Taiwan card, always wielded by Washington, completely blunted.
The Chinese obviously intervened to resolve the persistent national question. The fact that Africa has always demonstrated eternal optimism in China’s national reconciliation and reunification process must imply a similar spirit of creativity, originality and inclusiveness in addressing the national question and has implications for creative solutions in the unresolved issues of national issues in various African countries. The context of mutual learning and experience sharing in contemporary China-Africa cooperation would benefit both sides from the historical lessons of their respective national constructions.
From the strait of tensions and potential regional hot spot, the Chinese on both sides of the strait by their action have refused to dress up their homeland in the dress orchestrated by scheming external profiteers. In the current situation in the Taiwan region, it is the separatist platform of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that is isolated and has to deal with the trend and reality of peaceful national reunification. As one Chinese commentator put it, “the facts will ultimately demonstrate that any political maneuver that ties Taiwan to an external war chariot and pushes its residents to the front lines of danger will fail the test of public, reality and history,” as Taiwan’s future is firmly tied to national reunification.
The precision, tenacity and optimism that Africa demonstrated and shared in China’s peaceful reunification, and the ability of its people to achieve it, can have an even greater effect, helping to shape and reverse Africa’s fortunes and place it on a solid path towards modernization and renaissance.
