Should China treat America's proposed weapons sale to Taiwan as a blessing in disguise? According to this article by a man with the pen
name Young Mao in the state-controlled Global Times, Beijing must use this experience to
rally the nation and overcome America's long-term policy of containing China.
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou: In what may be the hardest job in the democratic world, he must
accept American military aid to deter an invasion by the mainland, while
protecting the interests of 23 million Taiwanese, many of whom do business in authoritarian China.
In Beijing, early
in the morning on
January 30, the U.S. government announced that it
would sell to Taiwan "Black Hawk"
helicopters, "Patriot-3" anti-missile systems, minesweepers and other
weapons for nearly $6.4 billion.Just hours later, the U.S. was socked with the anticipated
"violent storm" from China. The ministries of Foreign
Affairs and Defense, the Taiwan Affairs Office, the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference all expressed unusual but strong opposition to the U.S. plan to sell weapons to Taiwan.Within just 17 hours, China
also announced four counter-measures: The Chinese Defense Ministry announced
that China had decided to suspend planned military exchanges; the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs decided to postpone other projects associated with Chinese-U.S. military exchanges;
upcoming vice ministerial level consultations on China-U.S. strategic security,
arms control and non-proliferation were canceled; and China will impose
sanctions on U.S. companies involved in arms sales to Taiwan.
The
U.S. government's announced plans to sell weapons to Taiwan was in fact a
commitment agreed to earlier by former U.S. President George W. Bush when he
was in office, and Obama just chose what he considered to be an appropriate time to
announce it. Keeping in mind the details of the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan as well as China's immediate and strong
opposition, I believe that the now-approaching Sino-U.S. conflict isn't necessarily
a bad thing for China.On the contrary, from a certain
point of view, there is a profoundly positive significance to it.There is an ancient Chinese
saying, "Misfortune, is what good fortune depends on." So
what kind of positive significance for China
will thisU.S. arms sale to Taiwan
have?
First of all, this will greatly inspire strong nationalism and cohesion
among the Chinese people.
Sixty
years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, for all Chinese people,
there are two things inextricably bound up with the state and nation: one is
the Taiwan issue; and the other is
the containment policy of China that has long been pursued by
the United States. These have fostered a strong
anti-American sentiment in the minds of Chinese.Almost all of China's people know that the nation
isn't yet unified, the biggest reason being U.S. interference.Nowadays, with China's comprehensive national
strength among the greatest in the world, the material existence of most people
has improved dramatically. And yet the United States plays the same old tricks,
deliberately harming the unified national mindset of the Chinese people. This is bound to arouse strong
ethnic Chinese nationalist sentiment and cohesion.Add to this the strong
opposition spearheaded by the Chinese government, and
the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan becomes a real-life education
in the profound and widespread patriotism of our people.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Secondly,
from a military point of view, the U.S. government's current plan to
sell weapons to Taiwan will not have a substantial
impact on the balance of power between Mainland China and Taiwan.
The arms sale includes "Black
Hawk" helicopters, "Patriot-3" anti-missile systems and minesweepers.
These weaponswill either be obsolete soon
or be upgraded, so they'll be off the U.S. arms market. They
really pose no offensive threat, unlike, for example, F16C\D fighter aircraft, which
the U.S. is reluctant to make
available and so weren't included.If the U.S. dared provide large numbers
of advanced weapons to Taiwan, the situation would have an
entirely different
result.So from
this point of view, the Obama Administration's approval of weapons sales to Taiwan is clearly more symbolic than
real.
Thirdly,
calmly said, if the Mainland is forced to take the final step and adopt
non-peaceful means to safeguard national unity, then the focus of course would be to prevent
U.S. interference.The Chinese military certainly
understands that U.S. weapons in Japan, Korea, Guam, and other Pacific Rim regions, are far more
advanced than those currently in Taiwan. Once the People's Liberation
Army is able to gnaw away at the "hard-bone" of U.S. strength and
confidence, then dealing with so-called "Black Hawks" and
"Patriots" will of course be a piece of cake.
Finally,
the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan will once again allow China to regain the moral high
ground in international public opinion, which is conducive to Chinese weapons
development.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
China has repeatedly warned the United States that the Taiwan issue concerns China's core values and national
sentiment. If the U.S. challenges China on this issue again, there
will be no doubt that America is continuing to harmChina, and that this isn't any
ordinary type of harm, but the kind that greatly damages the country and its people.
The
Obama Administration has always advertised its commitment to creating
friendly relations with China, leaving little doubt that it puts
the moral obligation to act firmly in the hands of Chinese leaders.Moreover, because of the U.S. government's weapons sales to
Taiwan and China's strong opposition to it,
great concern has emerged within the international community. Now China may well tell the world:
since Americans have repeatedly sought to contain China, using military force to
interfere with China's national unity, China has no reason not to
strengthen its own military strength. China's military spending has seen
double-digit growth every year due to a fundamental need to safeguard the
nation's unity. Of course, maintaining national unity is a necessity for being
among the world's great independent powers.
More than 2,000 years ago, Mencius said, "Although there is wisdom, this is not as good as
opportunity; although there are tools, these are not as good as right
timing."With China's growing national strength and constant pursuit of harmonious development in the 21st
century, any situation related to the state and nation requires policymakers to
assess the situation and find rational and intelligent people to help achieve
the country's rise as a great power. By giving more thought to the U.S. weapons sale to Taiwan, we may learn
much more from the experience.
