Roving Periscope: Riding Ukraine, and the ex-Soviets’ bogie, China pushes the Taiwan plot

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: From the start, it hinted that China was eyeing Taiwan from behind the smokescreens of Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, which are all internationally recognized, sovereign, and territorially-integrated full members of the United Nations.

Taiwan is not.

The fact is, China is the Dragon, sanitized of any human emotions or limitations. It just waits, bulldozes, kills, and devours. Whether one trusts China or not is none of Beijing’s concerns. China’s business is business and to protect it is expanding its territory.

So it matters little how the world reacts to China’s words.

Responding to Beijing’s dubious policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hound, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis tweeted on Monday: “If anyone is still wondering why the Baltic States don’t trust China to ‘broker peace in Ukraine’, here is a Chinese ambassador arguing that Crimea is Russian and our countries’ borders have no legal basis.”

He was responding to the trial balloons China’s Ambassador to France Lu Shaye released. The envoy’s remarks set off a firestorm in many capitals. Officially, Beijing looked like ‘caving in’, when, taking a U-turn, it said it respected former Soviet republics as sovereign nations.

Now, for the time being, the fate of Ukraine or other ex-Soviet republics is not important for China, which scored a brownie point: if and when it annexes Taiwan, it would argue that the breakaway island is, unlike the former Soviet republics, not a sovereign nation nor recognized by any major country—nor even by its protector, the USA.

Only 13 minor states recognize Taiwan: Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Eswatini, the Vatican City, Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Having made its point, China’s so-called U-turn on Ukraine et al was no big deal.

For the media records, however, China conceded on Monday (April 24) that it respected the “sovereign state status” of all ex-Soviet countries. After Ukraine slammed the “absurd” remarks by Lu Shaye, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning ‘clarified’ that Beijing “respects the sovereign state status of the participating republics after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.”

On Friday last, Lu Shaye claimed the countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 “don’t have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations.”

These remarks sparked a wave of outrage across Europe as France and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania also condemned the Chinese envoy, who is close to President Xi Jinping.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the remarks were “unacceptable” and that the EU “can only suppose these declarations do not represent China’s official policy.”

Few could, however, read between the lines in what Mao said: “China respects the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of all countries and upholds the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with relevant countries.”

To Lu Shaye’s remarks on sovereignty, she slipped in two key words: territorial integrity—which China now seeks to establish as it prepares to annex Taiwan under its long-held “One China Policy.”

Then she padded the U-turn with the usual diplomatic stuff:

“Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China has always adhered to the principle of mutual respect and equality to develop bilateral, friendly, and cooperative relations.”

“The Chinese side respects the status of the member states as sovereign states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.”

Clearly, Beijing has used the status of Ukraine and other former Soviet republics to push its own Taiwan plot.

For, Mao Ning told tutored reporters, “The country you mentioned (Ukraine) is a full member of the United Nations, and only sovereign states can become full members of the United Nations.”

Taiwan is neither a sovereign state nor a member of the UN.

She said this is international “common sense” and in accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the five principles of peaceful coexistence, China has established and developed sound state-to-state relations with Ukraine.”

And she noted that any attempt to “sow dissension, interfere or undermine China’s relations with relevant countries will have ulterior motives and will not succeed.”

Over to Taiwan!