Peace with Taiwan is possible

[bemildred]

Always good to see a bit of sanity.

Remarkable vicissitudes have occurred to global politics ever since the curtain came down on the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and their allies. In Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) under the leadership of independence-minded Chen Shui-bian toppled the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT), the autocratic party, in the presidential election four years ago, while politicians seeking a Taiwan split from China are growing in number. On one hand, Taipei is pushing for indigenization and independence; on the other, the prominent hawks in Beijing are calling for the use of military force to unite island and mainland. Hence, the first imperative for Beijing is to devise innovative policies that help to contain and diminish the volatile status quo of the Taiwan Strait and promote the unity of the country.

"The highest form of generalship is to thwart the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities," said Sun Tzi, an ancient and world-renowned Chinese military strategist who wrote the Art of War (500 BC). Consequently, if ancient, tested and still relevant wisdom is any guide, then the use of force is the least-preferable option, and peaceful unification is in the interests of the whole Chinese nation.

Today, the "one China" principle has become a bone of contention between the two sides of the strait. The incumbent leaders of Taiwan disavow that the 1992 Hong Kong meeting between the Straits Exchange Foundation representing the Taiwanese government and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits on Beijing's behalf built an oral consensus: both sides adhere to the "one China" principle.

To clarify the cross-strait status quo, one needs to flip through history to the very beginning, when Taiwan was segregated from the mainland. More than 50 years ago, the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) between the governing KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) broke out again in the wake of China's victory over the Japanese invasion (1937-1945). As a result, the CCP prevailed and the KMT administration retreated to the island of Taiwan. In the years that followed, the KMT failed in all its comeback attempts, while the CCP lost a military operation crossing the straits. When the Korean Civil War started in June of 1950, North Korea reached out to Beijing for help and the US sent its 7th Fleet to defend Taiwan from potential attack by the mainland.

Asia Times