Foreign and Military Affairs

US will not give up its Taiwan card

By Wu Jiao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-30 10:42
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On January 29, 1979, the then Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping visited the United States, the first time that a Chinese leader paid an official visit to the US after the foundation of the PRC, and proclaimed that "the return of Taiwan is a matter of China's domestic affairs".

Thirty-one years later to the day, the US, despite repetitious negotiation and the previous lessons of stalled relations, perversely went ahead with a new round of arms sales to the island over which China holds indisputable sovereignty.

In the 1982 Sino-US Joint Communiqué, the United States promised "it intends to reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final resolution." This was just a political lie as the past 30 years seems no reduction of arms sales to Taiwan by the United States.

During years good or bad in bilateral relations, the successive arms sales by US governments have made it clear that the US will not give up its Taiwan card to contain China's development, not in the near future.

The ploy by the US once again proves that the so-called partnership that the current administration proclaims with China is just based on specific issues that the US considers urgent to its own interests.

Would a true partner keep interfering into the internal affairs of its partners, especially when cross-Straits relations have seen unprecedented good momentum of mutual exchange and good will?

If the US keeps its hand on China's internal affairs and tries to impair a historic process of reunification, it will eventually fail, and can achieve no more than being a criminal in the peaceful reunification process that the world should help preserve.