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China Said Taiwan Isn’t ‘Ukraine’ After People Linked Russia’s Invasion to China-Taiwan Conflict

2022-02-25 , 5:07 pm

As Russian President Vladimir Putin invades Ukraine under several pretexts—one of which includes Ukraine being old Russian lands and never having genuine statehood in the first place—it has certainly raised red flags for Taiwan.

The narrative sounds eerily similar to the “One China” policy that China has always proclaimed, which has led Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to heighten its vigilance against any hostile military activities in response to the war on the European Continent.

The Taiwan President’s remarks came after the British Prime Minister cautioned Taiwan last week regarding the detrimental worldwide consequences if the Western nations fail to fulfil their promises to support Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Should there be a domino effect, Taiwan might be next in the fall out.

China’s Flippant Response

Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying waved off the British Prime Minister’s warnings from Beijing, claiming that Taiwan has always been its own territory.

“Taiwan is not Ukraine,” she said. “Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China. This is an indisputable legal and historical fact.”

There is most definitely a resemblance between China and Russia.

Something about historical claims dating back to the Ottoman Empire, and modern Ukraine being built by the Bolsheviks as a documented fact, with Marxist Leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin playing a crucial role….

Brief Look into Taiwan’s History

On the other hand, China’s claim to Taiwan is the fact that the defeated Republic of China government had fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war to the Communists, who in turn, established the People’s Republic of China on the mainland.

History-wise, Taiwan had been under the Qing Dynasty’s rule from 1683 to 1895, governed as the Taiwan Prefecture of the Fokien Province (Fujian) until it was briefly ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.

When the Japanese lost in World War II, Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China in 1945.

Taiwan is the Republic of China

Regardless of China’s opinions, Taiwan’s government has always strongly denied China’s territorial claims.

President Tsai asserted that Taiwan is an independent state called Republic of China, which has been Taiwan’s official name all along.

Moreover, Taiwan has never been negligent in terms of how it viewed the People’s Republic of China, especially when they have increased their military activity near the self-governed island for the past two year.

Even if there has been no unusual movement by the Chinese forces as tensions spiked and exploded in Ukraine, Taiwan won’t be letting their guard down anytime soon.

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Taiwan’s Vigilance and Decisions

In a meeting of the working group on the Ukrainian Crisis that was set up by her National Security Council, President Tsai stressed that all security and military units “must raise their surveillance and early warning of military developments around the Taiwan Strait”.

There are intrinsic differences between Taiwan and Ukraine in terms of geography:

For one, Taiwan is surrounded by water whilst Ukraine is mostly landlocked besides its access to the Sea of Azov through two main ports of Mariupol and Odessa.

Ukraine shares borders with many countries whereas Taiwan is an isolated island.

For the same reason, the way each country strategizes and handles its international supply chain is different.

“But in the face of foreign forces intending to manipulate the situation in Ukraine and affect the morale of the Taiwanese society, all government units must strengthen the prevention of cognitive warfare launched by foreign forces and local collaborators,” President Tsai said.

Her statement does not mention China by name explicitly, but the country has always been the most significant military threat for Taiwan across waters, and is the reason for its awkward political situation.

As for the cognitive warfare, President Tsai is probably pointing towards the waves of cyberattacks and propaganda that might be deployed to affect the Taiwanese public, as Russia has done to Ukraine.

In view of their similar predicaments, President Tsai expresses “empathy” for Ukraine’s situation.

Taiwan was one of the countries that had been incredibly swift to place economic sanctions on Russia as well.