Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech full of successes from his country last year, a speech full of global adversities, the largest of which was detected for the first time in his country – the pandemic COVID-19.
The ties between the main world powers, China and the United States, had been deteriorating for some time, and the international crisis only served to aggravate them. While the Chinese leader spoke of hope for the new year, his officials issued a severe warning in response to the U.S. military who pose a year-end challenge in the sensitive Taiwan strait.
In the latest affront, the US Navy conducted a rare double warship pass through the Taiwan Strait with Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS John S. McCain and USS Curtis Wilbur.
In response to the move, the second such pass this month, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin expressed China’s “firm opposition” and warned against future actions in statements affirmed to the Newsweek by the Beijing embassy in Washington.
“The Chinese side was closely and fully aware of the passage of US military ships through the Taiwan Strait,” said Wang. “US warships have repeatedly displayed their prowess in the Taiwan Strait, caused and created problems, sent the wrong signals to Taiwan’s independence forces and seriously jeopardized peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
He said the People’s Liberation Army will remain vigilant against these perceived threats.
“China will remain on high alert, ready to respond to all threats and provocations at any time and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Wang. “We urge the US side to play a constructive role for regional peace and stability, rather than the other way around.”
Wang also referred to remarks made by ELP senior colonel Wu Qian, who uttered similar words of caution against the US “flexed muscles” at the maritime flashpoint where China routinely shuffles its forces against such movements.
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington in the United States of America
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense also issued a statement on the passage of US warships.
“The Chinese military used joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as a way of understanding the relevant dynamics and actions of ships and aircraft in the surrounding seas and airspace,” a statement sent to Newsweek by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office read.
US 7th Fleet, for its part, maintained that the action was taken “in accordance with international law”.
“The transit of ships across the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said the fleet’s public relations department on Wednesday. “The United States military will continue to fly, sail and operate whenever international law permits.”
These words were recently echoed by a Navy spokesman who said that “the vast majority of our interactions with the PLA” across the region, including the eastern and southern seas of China “are safe and in accordance with international standards “.
“We hope the PLA will operate accordingly,” said the spokesman. Newsweek, noting that “attempts to misinterpret or sensationalize our operations are irresponsible and counterproductive”.
Xi, meanwhile, adopted a characteristically measured tone on Thursday, delivering an annual message to reflect on 2020 and set the stage for 2021.
The Chinese leader defended frontline workers, from health professionals and scientists to soldiers and civilian volunteers in the country’s collective struggle against the new coronavirus. The disease was first observed about a year ago in the city of Wuhan, in central China, and has since spread worldwide, infecting 83 million people and killing more than 1.8 million.
While the West continues to suffer the worst from the virus, China has largely recovered, and Xi took the opportunity to commend his country’s return to normalcy and the achievement of its economic growth goals with record trade numbers.
The People’s Republic was defined as the only major economy in the world to expand this year.
“I am proud of our great homeland and people, as well as the unyielding national spirit. Only in difficult times can courage and perseverance be manifested,” said Xi. “Only after polishing can a piece of jade become thinner. We overcame the impact of the pandemic and made great achievements in the coordination of prevention and control and in economic and social development ”.
While fighting the pandemic, China managed to combat disastrous floods, alleviate poverty and send a robot to plant its flag on the moon.
However, the year was also fraught with tensions.
China consolidated the central government’s influence on the restless and semi-autonomous Hong Kong and became involved in a deadly high-altitude confrontation on the border with India. He increased pressure on Japan by increasing patrols near the disputed East China Sea islands and became involved in a contentious trade conflict with Australia.
Beijing has also drawn unprecedented international scrutiny to its re-education camps in Xinjiang province, where the United Nations estimates that more than one million people, most of them members of the Uighur Muslim-majority community, have been detained.
2nd class mass communication specialist Markus Castaneda / US Navy
China has vehemently defended itself against criticisms of its domestic and foreign policies, but nowhere have Chinese authorities reacted as strongly as the unprecedented pace of US challenges to the continent’s claims to the autonomous island of Taiwan and its surrounding waters .
Since defeating its nationalist opponents in 1949, the central government led by the Chinese Communist Party has remained the legitimate administrator of Taiwan. In the seven decades since Taipei’s rival government was established in Taiwan, an overwhelming majority of the global community – including the US in 1979, in a move accompanied by Chinese economic reforms – has changed relations with Beijing, which prohibits diplomatic relations with separatists island.
Still, the United States provides military assistance to Taiwan in an action that continues to infuriate China. Under President Donald Trump, Washington has also sent senior diplomatic officials to the island, despite the absence of formal relations.
At a news conference on Thursday in Beijing, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Tan Kefei protested “external forces” that are pressing China in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, where he and other officials have also pledged to defend Chinese territorial claims.
In addition to criticizing US arms sales to Taiwan, Tan also denounced the growing relationship between the US and India amid the ongoing border dispute between Beijing and New Delhi.
He also criticized the release earlier this month of a report by the U.S. Naval Institute that stated that the “People’s Republic of China represents the most urgent and long-term strategic threat” to US maritime security.
“To the person with the hammer in hand, everything looks like a nail,” said Tan. “Some people in the United States cling to the outdated Cold War mentality and the narrow concept of zero-sum gambling, hypothesizing other countries as a threat, disregarding international justice and axioms, often inciting disputes and conflicts, and impacting the international system and international order. “
While Hong Kong People’s Liberation Army Garrison warships docked at the Central Military Terminal in the special administrative region for the first time, a move potentially signaling a greater Chinese military role in Hong Kong, the State Department issued a statement on Thursday aimed at the recent imprisonment of a dozen activists who tried to flee to Taiwan.
“A regime that prevents its own people from leaving cannot claim greatness or global leadership,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “It is simply a fragile dictatorship, afraid of its own people.”
South China Sea survey initiative
The Trump administration has taken a particularly tough line towards China, accusing the People’s Republic of commercial abuses, human rights violations and geopolitical aggressions. With President-elect Joe Biden set to take office on January 20, despite Trump’s protests, however, some Chinese officials have expressed hope for an improvement in U.S.-China relations.
Tan told reporters on Thursday that he expects a more productive relationship between Washington and Beijing moving forward, moving away from the 2020 “twists and turns” toward the US, seeking “to effectively reduce hostility and provocation against China, to face the China halfway and continue to strengthen cooperation in areas such as strategic communication, institutional dialogue, conflict prevention and crisis management and jointly promote the stable development of relations between the two military. “
Others were less optimistic.
The South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a Chinese think tank made up of international experts who monitor the region, recently said Newsweek that the threat of war has remained very real, and may even be increasing.
“We still believe that the risk of conflict is increasing,” said the SCSPI team. “Although less mentioned in media reports recently, there have always been several meetings of various types on two sides every day. If the US and China could not find substantive crisis management measures, the risk of an unexpected accident or conflict would still be High.”
The institute also recommended taking action on tensions, but was skeptical as to whether Washington would accept, given the circumstances of its growing international rivalry.
“The US needs to: 1) refrain from ‘taking sides’ on controversial issues and maintaining the necessary political balance; 2) avoid extreme movements on the front line, ”said the SCSPI.
But they were not hopeful.
“However, against the background of the great competition for power,” said the SCSPI, “the two mentioned above are difficult to see.”