TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s recent string of actions marks an escalation in its strategy to try and annex Taiwan, analysts said, per a Guardian report.
In October, China published a series of articles in state media explaining that Taiwan would be administered under a “one country two systems” regime similar to Hong Kong and Macau. Taiwan’s National Security Bureau head, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥), said this move was to “belittle Taiwan’s international standing” and undermine its sovereignty.
On Retrocession Day (Oct. 25), which celebrates the end of Japanese rule and the handover of Taiwan to the KMT government, China tried to claim it as the day Taiwan was returned to the Chinese Communist Party.
When Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul reiterated his country’s long-standing opposition to “violent change” in the Taiwan Strait status quo, China’s foreign ministry accused Germany of “aiding and abetting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities.”
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the US-based German Marshall Fund, said these collective actions “suggest that Beijing is more aggressively pressing for progress toward reunification,” per The Guardian.
In early November, China’s US Embassy posted a series of photos on X taken by China’s Jilin-2 satellite of Taiwan’s famous attractions and economic hubs, with the caption: “There is but one China in the world; Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory.”
Raymond Kuo (郭泓均), director of the Rand Corporation’s Taiwan Policy Initiative, said these actions could pave the way for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to demand that the US reduce its support for Taiwan when Xi meets Trump in April. “Enforcing Taiwan’s isolation could make it easier for Xi to say ‘already no one deals with Taiwan,’” The Guardian quoted Kuo as saying.
Song Bo, a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy, said these moves are an adjustment of self-imposed restrictions within China’s Taiwan policy. “This isn’t about sudden escalation, it’s about China normalizing actions it once restrained itself from taking,” Song said.
