China’s military said on Wednesday it had “successfully” completed its exercises after nearly a week of military drills around Taiwan, while Beijing once again promised it would seek “reunification”.
The PLA Eastern Theater Command, which began unprecedented live-fire exercises around Taiwan on August 4, a day after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit, said it had “completed” a variety of tasks that had led to a “unified joint mobilization of the military.” The combat capability was effectively tested.” It said it would continue training and “regularly conduct war preparations” in the Taiwan Strait.
China has sought to convey that the exercises, which involve aircraft and warships crossing the midline of the Taiwan Strait and firing conventional missiles at Taiwan, will bring a new normal in military activity.
On Wednesday, Beijing issued only its third “white paper” on its Taiwan policy, reaffirming its quest for “reunification” and rolling back some of the autonomy guarantees made in earlier white papers in 1993 and 2000.
The paper, titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era” from Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said China will “act with the greatest sincerity and do our best to achieve peaceful reunification.” “But we will not abandon the use of force, and we reserve the option to take all necessary measures,” it said, reiterating an earlier white paper’s declaration that “the use of force will be the last resort in compelling circumstances.”
The “new era” refers to the regime of Xi Jinping, who heralded the beginning of the third era, following the Mao and Deng era, when he came to power in 2012. Mr. Xi, 69, will open an unprecedented third five. -this year’s term, and most analysts in Beijing expect him to remain in power for at least another decade.
The White Paper called “reunification” the Communist Party’s “historic mission”, adding that “we have never before been so close, confident and capable of achieving the goal of national rejuvenation.” “The same is true when it comes to our goal of complete national reunification,” it added, drawing a connection between Mr. Xi’s stated goal of “rejuvenation” with “reunification”.
The white paper said the “one country, two systems” formula adopted in Hong Kong would similarly apply in Taiwan.
However, recent polls in Taiwan have shown that fewer and fewer people support the idea of integration or “one country, two systems”, which has fallen to a record low in the wake of changes in Hong Kong after the imposition of national security. . law.
A July 2021 poll by National Chengchi University showed self-identification as “Taiwanese and Chinese”, or record lows only as “Chinese”, and 63.3% identified as Taiwanese. Most of the respondents (28.2%) supported the status quo in the strait, with 27.5% wanting to make the status quo permanent. Only 1.5% favored consolidation, while 5% “inclined towards consolidation”.
While the newspaper widely reaffirmed the official policy on Taiwan, it “withdrew its promise not to send troops or administrators after taking Taiwan”, the Reuters report said, adding that “the last two white papers on Taiwan, in 1993 and 2000” stated that China would “not send military or administrative personnel to live in Taiwan” after achieving unification. That reference was removed.
