By Chen Guiqing
A few days ago, former Australian Prime Minister Morrison visited Taiwan, and when attending the seventh Yushan Forum organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF) on October 11, he addressed a keynote speech presumptuously stating that “Taiwan is under constant threats and its future is uniquely central to global peace and security”, strengthening the necessity to build meaningful and resilient deterrent forces in Taiwan and the region.
Some outdated European and American politicians, represented by Morrison, visit Taiwan every now and then to chart the course for the region histrionically. Some people in Taiwan are willing to cooperate with them, but one shouldn’t take it seriously that all people are not clear about their petty niggling.
These frequenters have been colluding with Taiwan separatists within the island over the years, including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the shortest-serving former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and former Japanese Prime Minister Aso Taro.
The rush of Western politicians to Taiwan is closely related to the changes in the international environment particularly in China-US relations in recent years. The US not only positions China as “the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system”, but also re-strengthens ties with its allies and courts them to play the “Taiwan card” in an attempt to thwart China’s reunification process. The US and the West spare no effort to peddle the strategy of “containing China with Taiwan”, regarding the transit of outdated politicians as one of the targeted means.
On the surface, these Western politicians are trying to ride the political correctness of “containing China with Taiwan”. But by their very nature, they talk loudly and utterly about the so-called alliance of democratic values and “democratism” pretentiously, but inwardly do unabashed monetary deals blatantly filled with business and political calculations.
Taiwan media reported that according to the additional income information of parliamentarians released by the UK, all the transportation, accommodation and other expenses spent by Truss for her speech and visit to Taiwan in May 2023, a total of 90,000 pounds, were paid by the Prospect Foundation and external affairs departments of Taiwan. In 2022, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also incurred huge costs during his twice Taiwan visits. It was reported by Taiwan media that Pompeo received 150,000 US dollars in speech fees during his first visit. The specific price of Morrison on this latest visit has not been disclosed by the media yet, but as per the past operations of the Taiwan authorities, it is reasonable to speculate that a mint of money is bound to be invested to invite such a “notable” guest.
These outdated politicians who worry about their fading powers also want to obtain some political capital by visiting Taiwan. Whether it is Truss, Pompeo, Aso Taro or Morrison, they all harboring evil intentions for the transit. Their routines behaviors are basically the same, that is, shouting about “supporting Taiwan”, hyping up “China’s threat” and vilifying China for “changing the international order”, in order to cater to some political atmosphere of “resisting China and supporting Taiwan” within their countries and retain their own political influences.
The plot of Pompeo may be increasing his presence through the Taiwan visit in a bid to win the support of anti-China forces in the US in his representing the Republican Party to run for president. Truss, as the former UK prime minister with the shortest term, rushed to Taiwan just to exchange for some political capital to re-rise. With their glittering political careers drawing to a close, these politicians most probably have fewer audiences in their countries, thus perhaps could gain certain psychological solace from the readiness of Taiwan separatists on the island to cater to their political hype.
However, all sober people can see that the performances of these dimming politicians are essentially self-deception and can never change the fact that Taiwan is part of China. It will lead to void results for Western anti-China politicians to collude with Taiwan separatist forces to boost their arrogance on mistaken propensity, by challenging international justice and order against the trend of history. They can neither delude the public people on the island and the international community, nor change the doom of Taiwan independence, but will only play a clown like farce in the end.
(The author is an associate researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Editor’s note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
