Taiwan is different from a ‘sovereign’ Ukraine, China tells the USA

Life within Ukraine’s Mariupol city is impossible, says its Mayor

Russia’s explosive munitions in the Chornobyl zone may cause detonation that could release radioactive dust and endanger Europe, claims Ukraine

Beijing/Kyiv/Geneva/New York/Washington/Rome: China today said the Taiwan question was “essentially different from the Ukraine issue”, and that the two cannot be compared “as they are like apples and oranges”.

Responding to an interview of the United States’ Indo-Pacific Command Admiral John C. Aquilino, where the Admiral reportedly said that the Ukraine issue had underscored the serious threat that China posed to Taiwan, China retorted by saying “some people in the US repeatedly link up the two unrelated things with the real agenda to smear and attack China with every opportunity possible”.

Claiming that such an act was “ill-intentioned,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing today that what makes Taiwan different from Ukraine was that unlike the latter, which is a sovereign country, Taiwan “is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory”. 

Wenbin said that those in the US who deliberately compare the Taiwan question with the Ukraine issue “harbour a vile attempt rather than lack common sense”. According to him, their “real agenda” was to create a new crisis across the Taiwan Strait, which serves the USA’s own geopolitical interests and economic benefits at the expense of the wellbeing of people across the Strait and regional peace and stability.

“But Taiwan is not Ukraine. The Chinese people’s resolve and determination to uphold national sovereignty and territorial integrity is invincible. Those who play with and fan up the fire on the Taiwan question will only wind up burning themselves,” he warned.

Elaborating on the current Ukraine issue, Wenbin said it was an outbreak of tension that built up for years with Europe’s security as the root cause. “NATO’s unchecked eastward expansion warrants reflection,” he said adding, facing the current situation in Ukraine, the US did nothing to reflect on the responsibility itself should assume, or make efforts to cool the situation and promote talks for peace. “Instead, it has been adding fuel to the flame. When European countries are paying the price for refugees and economic volatility due to the conflict, US arms dealers and the oil and gas industry have made a fortune,” he said. He asserted that Taiwan was an “inalienable part” of the Chinese territory. “This makes it different from a sovereign country like Ukraine,” he reiterated.

Earlier, on February 23, 2022, too – a day before Russia invaded Ukraine – China had asserted that “Taiwan for sure is not Ukraine”. Responding to a comparison of the Ukraine issue to the Taiwan question by the spokesperson of the Taiwan region’s leader and the head of Taiwan’s foreign affairs department, China had asserted that “Taiwan for sure is not Ukraine”. The said spokesperson had expressed the hope that the international community will continue to provide Taiwan with weapons so that China’s mainland dare not “invade” Taiwan by force.

“It is unwise of certain people of the Taiwan authorities to latch on to and exploit the Ukraine issue to their benefit,” the Chinese spokesperson Hua Chunying had stated. She had further added that Taiwan had always been an inalienable part of China’s territory. “This is an indisputable historical and legal fact. The one-China principle is a universally recognized norm governing international relations,” she said. According to her, the Taiwan region’s peace hinges on the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, rather than brownnosing foreign forces for arms sales and military support. “Taiwan independence” only leads to a dead end. No one shall have any illusion or make any miscalculation on this issue.

Since the Ukraine crisis broke out, Taiwan has been frequently mentioned by some people. Some of their remarks fully reveal their lack of knowledge of the history of the Taiwan question. I’d like to take this occasion to share some basic facts with you.

“It is common knowledge that the Taiwan question was caused by civil war, and there is a political confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait due to that civil war. However, China’s sovereignty and territory have never been divided and cannot be divided. This is the status quo of the Taiwan question,” Chunying said.

It was during President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in February 1972, the two sides issued the China-US Joint Communiqué in Shanghai, marking the normalization of China-US relations. There are very important lines on the Taiwan question in the Shanghai Communiqué. The US side stated: “There are essential differences between China and the United States in their social systems and foreign policies. However, the two sides agreed that countries, regardless of their social systems, should conduct their relations on the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, nonaggression against other states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.”

The U.S. side also declared: “The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves. With this prospect in mind, it affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan. In the meantime, it will progressively reduce its forces and military installations in Taiwan.

In the August 17 Communiqué issued by the Chinese and US government in 1982, the US government stated that it attaches great importance to its relations with China, and reiterates that it has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity, or interfering in China’s internal affairs, or pursuing a policy of “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.” The United States Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, that its arms sales to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or quantitative terms, the level of those supplied in recent years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution.

“These are some historical facts that I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you about Taiwan and the relationship between the US and Taiwan, so you may have some idea as to whether the US honours its commitment or not. In the context of what’s happening now in the world, I believe this will help you to better understand the Taiwan question. On this issue, we would also like to advise certain people, including some on the Taiwan island, not to have any illusion or make any miscalculation on the Taiwan question,” the Chinese foreign office spokesperson said.

In the meantime, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament, Lyudmila Denisova, said the growing Russian military presence in the Chornobyl exclusion zone was threatening ecological safety. Denisova claimed the Russians were storing, moving and loading explosive munitions in the zone, and warned that a detonation could lead to the release of radioactive dust that could endanger Ukraine and Europe.

Also read: Burning woodland in Chornobyl causing radioactive air pollution: Ukraine

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Mariupol (Donetsk region) stated today that about 160,000 civilians are still in the city, which is blockaded and shelled by the Russian forces. “The city needs a complete evacuation. Life within the city is impossible: no water, heat, electricity, supplies or communication,” the Mayor said. Earlier, Osnat Lubrani, who is the United Nations’ Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, had stated that hundreds of thousands of people were trapped in Ukrainian cities like Mariupol, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, the capital, Kyiv, and in areas close to the front lines, where fighting was ongoing.

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the encircled city of Mariupol is running out of its last reserves of food and water.  No humanitarian aid has been allowed into the city since it was encircled on February 24, 2022, and the World Food Programme said that the only way to reach Mariupol was through humanitarian convoys which had up until now not been able to make it through.

Lubrani claimed people in these cities were exhausted and running out of the basics needed for human survival, coping with constant bombardment and living in basements without heating, cooking fuel or water.

As of midnight of March 27, 2022, according to the Geneva-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the total casualties reported were 1670 (774 killed and 896 injured) in Kyiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions.

The OHCHR said that in Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Popasna and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), and Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties, the casualty figures were being further corroborated and were not included in the above statistics.  

Overall, the OHCHR said, from 4 a.m. on February 24, 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on March 27,  2022 (local time), it had recorded 2,975 civilian casualties in the country: 1,151 killed and 1,824 injured. Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and airstrikes.

The OHCHR further stated today that it believed that the actual figures were considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities had been going on had been delayed and many reports were still pending corroboration.

The WFP estimates that 45 per cent of the people in Ukraine are worried about finding enough to eat and that 1 out of 5 people there are already using some food-coping mechanisms like reducing the size and number of meals and eating less food, and adults are sacrificing meals or eating less so that children can eat. For its part, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that current indications are that, as a result of this war, between 20 and 30 per cent of areas sown to winter crops in Ukraine will remain unharvested during the 2022-23 season. 

According to the Head of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, day after day, the death toll and human suffering in cities, towns and villages across the country were increasing.  She said the extent of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian objects strongly suggests that the principles of distinction, proportionality, the rule on feasible precautions and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks had been violated. She added that the Human Rights Monitoring Mission was also concerned with videos depicting prisoners of war being interrogated after their capture by both Ukrainian and Russian forces.  She added that since the invasion by the Russian Federation, people believed to be thieves, bootleggers, pro-Russian supporters or curfew violators had been beaten in the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine. 

– global bihari bureau