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The ‘last resort’ force for China in the reunification of Taiwan, says former PLA official


BEIJING – China’s central government in Beijing will only use force as a “last resort” for the reunification of Taiwan, a retired People’s Liberation Army officer said.

Zhou Bo, now a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for Strategic and International Security Studies, said: “The Chinese PLA is getting stronger and stronger, and we are geographically close to each other. .

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to easily use force because that would be a last resort,” he said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.” “We have the most sincere wishes to be reunited with our compatriots in Taiwan through peaceful means.”

Taiwan is a self-governing democratic island that Beijing considers part of its territory.

On Monday, the President of the United States Joe Biden said he would ready to use military force to defend Taiwana stark break from Washington’s tradition of deliberately ambiguity about whether the US would aid the island if China invaded.

Biden and the White House then said such comments do not reflect policy changes.

“China expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolutely opposes the remarks of the US side,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. responded, according to the official English-language transcript of Monday’s briefing.

Wang reiterated that the Taiwan issue is an internal matter. “No one should underestimate the Chinese people’s determined will and strong ability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said. “No one should go against the 1.4 billion Chinese.”

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It’s important to remember that Biden is describing a “hypothetical situation,” said Susan Thornton, retired senior US diplomat and senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. know.

“It’s unfortunate that people keep talking about an invasion of Taiwan, militarizing that situation,” Thornton said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday. “There shouldn’t be an impending crisis in Taiwan and the more we talk about it, the more we move towards it, in my view.”

Beijing says it aims for peaceful reunification with Taiwan. On Tuesday, Zhou quoted China’s “Anti-Separatism Law” on the conditions under which Beijing will use force.

“Unless and until Taiwan declares independence, unless and until an external power separates Taiwan from China, or unless and until the possibility of peaceful reunification is completely exhausted.” , he said, “otherwise we will not use force.”

“Of course, if the Taiwanese authorities [are] Faced with this possibility of reunification indefinitely, of course we have to be well prepared,” Zhou said. We don’t regret that. “

China’s commercial power

Biden was in Tokyo this week as his administration sought to build political ties in the region as part of its response to China’s rise.

The United States on Monday announced a Indo-Pacific Economic Framework with 12 other partner countries in the region, including Australia, Japan and South Korea. The framework is not a trade agreement, but an agreement to create international standards on issues such as the digital economy and working conditions.

Taiwan and Beijing were not in the original group to participate.

“We should seek cooperation with all countries in the Asia-Pacific,” said He Weiwen, senior fellow at the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization. and the Indo-Pacific, not just parts of it.

Countries in the region are members of other groups, such as The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, a free trade agreement between 15 countries entered into force in January. The US is not a member, while China is.

China’s trade with the other 14 members of RCEP far exceeds US trade with those countries, he said Tuesday on CNBC.Asian street signs. “

He, a former trade counselor at the Chinese embassies in New York and San Francisco, said the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, “seems to cover all the major trade themes of the century.” 21″. “But it’s still not a trade agreement. It’s still a concept for the moment and we have to wait and see how it develops.. “

– CNBC’s Su-Lin Tan contributed to this report.



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