Is China using recent US action and rhetoric of expansion to bolster its claim on Taiwan?
While China needs no external precedent to justify its claim on Taiwan, the US actions are helpful for it to put pressure on other international actors to see China's claim in a light similar to the US one. If the West does not do so, China can easily accuse them of hypocrisy in that case.
New Delhi: US President Donald Trump’s recent actions in Venezuela, and rhetoric surrounding Iran and Greenland have been a cause of international worry. Many see his recent expansionist stance of the US President as worrisome for the sovereignty of many nations. Meanwhile China is looking to use this as an excuse to ascertain its claim on Taiwan and use the opportunity to build public opinion on its side on the issue.
Related to this, Chinese officials have been pushing "legal advice” on European countries, saying their own border laws require them to ban entry to Taiwanese politicians. This has been reported by news publication The Guardian, who claim to have corroborated this with more than half a dozen diplomats and officials familiar with the matter.
China’s current action
The officials made demarches to European embassies in Beijing, or through local embassies directly to European governments in their capital cities, warning the European countries not to "trample on China’s red lines”, according to the European diplomats and ministries who spoke to the Guardian. Beijing said it "respects the sovereignty of the European side in introducing and implementing visa policy”, but an "institutional loophole” had allowed frequent visits by Taiwan politicians, according to one note verbale seen by the Guardian.
The Chinese also cited multiple EU laws and regulations, including one known as the Schengen Borders Code, which says a condition for entry by non-EU nationals is that they "are not considered to be a threat to the … international relations of any of the member states”. In some cases, they also referred to the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, or suggested the European countries follow the UN’s example and bar all Taiwanese people from government buildings, the Guardian reported.
The foreign ministries of Norway and Finland confirmed they were among the nations to receive the advice. They said visa regulations with Taiwan were determined by relevant Schengen bodies. A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said: "Permission to enter the UK is determined solely by our own laws and immigration rules, which apply equally to those travelling from Taiwan.” Meanwhile, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said officials’ visits to Europe were "entirely unrelated to China, and China has no right to interfere”. "On the contrary, China’s use of various coercive measures against other countries and its threats of force against Taiwan, which undermine global and Indo-Pacific peace and stability and threaten the direct interests of the EU, is the real force damaging European international relations,” the spokesperson told the Guardian.
Using US actions for its Taiwan claim
China has increasingly framed recent US actions and rhetoric surrounding American expansion, be it in Greenland, Venezuela or Iran, as a tool to support its own plan for annexation of Taiwan’s international space.
China has also claimed that US military cooperation with Taiwan and its congressional support for Taiwan’s status are part of a broader US strategy to interfere in China’s internal affairs. China meanwhile maintains its claim on Taiwan being an inalienable part of China’s sovereign territory in the face of foreign meddling.
While maintaining its sovereignty on Taiwan, China sees the current US expansionism as being hypocritical of the US who has on different instances opposed China’s claims on Taiwan. Now China looks to legitimise stronger military postures in and around Taiwan the same way the US is doing around the world, arguing with the logic of similarity. This though is only one small part of China’s rhetoric as its claim that Taiwan is part of China’s sovereign territory and thus not subject to external interference remains paramount. China needs no external precedent to justify its claim on Taiwan, but the US actions are helpful for it to put pressure on other international actors to see China’s claim in a light similar to the US one, which if they do not do can be argued to be a hypocritical position.