‘Confronting democracy’: How China uses state media to try to demoralize Taiwan’s president | Globalism

“High-ranking figures in the Chinese Communist Party have begun to refer to the Taiwanese government’s head of state as a ‘traitor to the motherland and Chinese civilization,’ which puts her in apparent opposition to one of the most valued characteristics of China’s governing member from the point of view of the party’s Politburo: being patriotic. , says Allen Tedeschi, international analyst and coordinator of Obzerba China Group.

Senior Chinese officials view the Taiwanese president, according to Tedeschi, as a traitor who will contribute to the advance of “foreign forces” in their blockade against China, leaving the country exposed.

“It is possible that this strategy will continue until January 2024, when Taiwan will hold new elections for prime minister,” Tedeschi assesses. Then, Beijing will be able to count on a candidate from the Kuomindang Party, more friendly to the mainland government’s guidelines.

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Chinese state radio is seeking to link Ing Wen to the United States, calling her an “America Today” that leads “divided Taiwan” and “praised by the United States, and controversial in Taiwan.”

The accusations come in the wake of Chinese allegations of US interference in China’s internal affairs. On August 10, in response to Pelosi’s visit, the Chinese State Council issued a document titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era.”

The document says the Chinese government “reiterates the fact that Taiwan is part of China” and cites United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, which protects the one-China principle. “China is under no obligation to exclude the use of force. This is in no way directed against the citizens of Taiwan, but against the scheme to create an “independent Taiwan” and against foreign powers interfering with reunification.

Alexander Coelho, research coordinator at Obserpa China and secretary of the International Political Science Association’s Asia Pacific Research Committee, says the Chinese government’s speculation against the Taiwanese president should not be easily accepted by the islanders.

According to a survey conducted by a Taiwanese university, in January 2022, more than 62% of the island’s residents consider themselves Taiwanese citizens, more than they consider themselves Chinese. This indicates that there is a pro-independence majority in Taiwan. In this way, attempts to demoralize the Taiwanese leader may not achieve Beijing’s goals so easily.

The research that Coelho is referring to was conducted by National Chengqi University and looks at the change in self-proclaimed identity of the Taiwanese population between 1992 and June 2022.

For Tedeschi, China should seek dialogue with Guomindang, a Chinese nationalist party in Taiwan that opposes President Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party.

The change of head of government in Hong Kong was similar, except that in the autonomous region there were mass protests against the extradition law before the change. What ended up legitimizing the national characteristics of the new representative of Hong Kong,” he notes.

The invasion of the autonomous region’s legislature by protesters in 2019 led to the ascension of then-police chief Jun Lee Ka-chiu, who, with the support of the Chinese Communist Party, was nominated for the Hong Kong government in an election. who was the only candidate in it.

During the opening of the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party on Sunday (16), Xi Jinping claimed that China had achieved complete control of Hong Kong, which, for him, changed the situation in the territory “from chaos to governance”.

In Taiwan, Shi upped the ante and He said he would not give up the right to use force in the autonomous island. The Chinese president also promised that reunification would be a priority in his final third term.

At the end of the conference, next Saturday (22), it is expected that Xi’s third term as head of the country will be confirmed, which will make him the longest-serving and most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong.

Reunification with Taiwan is one of the agendas that Xi has pursued since his first term. The importance of the matter is often repeated for the Chinese president, especially after the escalation of tension in the Taiwan Strait due to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.

Coelho believes the tension should prompt Xi to speed up his plans for reunification from the island to mainland China.

The island of Taiwan legally belongs to China. The United States itself has recognized Chinese sovereignty over the island since the 1970s, when the Asian giant became part of the United Nations under the “one country, two systems” policy, a formula that allows the Taiwanese government to conduct its own elections and autonomy in relation to the Chinese Communist Party, but this does not make the island A sovereign state.