The official four-day trip of US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan in August 2020 marked the highest American visit to this self-governing island since formal diplomatic relations were severed in 1979 in deference to China. This is going to be a fresh thorn in prickly USChina ties.
Besides demonstrating America’s strong commitment to defend Taiwan’s security, necessary protocol was maintained on the Covid-19 issue as Taiwan is one of the few countries that has successfully handled containing the spread of the virus, the others being South Korea and Vietnam. Therefore, use of face masks and other necessary safety protocols were strictly followed by all the delegation members, except in “rare circumstances”. With a population of 23 million, Taiwan has reported 484 cases and seven deaths.
Azar’s visit was not a normal one; it posits in the larger political and geopolitical context. It is likely to exacerbate mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary. When President Donald Trump took umbrage over the mounting trade deficit with China, he first put pressure on Beijing to take necessary measures to address this issue. But having failed to get satisfactory responses, he started to take countermeasures through tariffs and quantitative quota restrictions. Beijing too retaliated in its own ways. In a throwback to the Cold War era, the two ordered tit-for-tat closures of consulates in Houston and Chengdu amid rhetorical sniping. Azar’s visit now adds to those frictions.
Though the visit represented an acknowledgment of the deep US-Taiwan friendship and partnership across security, economics, health care, and democratic values, Beijing was never expected to buy this justification. Even as the US and Taiwan celebrated the bond, China responded with two jets screaming towards the island before the talks began.
In a steady deterioration of bilateral ties, Washington’s explicit denial of most of China’s maritime claims in the strategically vital South China Sea instantly drew China’s ire. China claims almost the whole of this strategic waterway and considers activities in the area by the US Navy, including by ships close to Chinese controlled islands, as threats to regional peace and stability.
The Trump administration lunched the tariff war targeting Chinese institutions and officials, besides campaigning to exclude Chinese telecom giant Huawei from the US and allied countries. China saw this as a US attempt to prevent its development as a global technology power. Trump suspects Huawei’s links with the ruling Communist Party and believes these compromise personal data and the integrity of information systems in the companies in which it operates. Beijing demands proof of this.
Further, Trump escalated tensions when he signed an executive order banning dealings with the Chinese owners of consumers apps TikTok and WeChat, possibly leading to their becoming unavailable in the lucrative American market.
Adding another dimension to the US-China tensions, Azar while in Taipei alleged that Beijing broke the international health treaty by failing to warn the world about Covid-19 on time. He also expressed regret over Taiwan being excluded from the World Health Assembly denying it an opportunity to share its health expertise. The US and Taiwan have developed their relationship as one based on “shared democratic values”. The US sees Taiwan playing its role in a brewing ideological battle between the two even as Beijing is not shy of warning of consequences if Taiwan continues to nurture ties with Washington.
In the recent past, Beijing has used economic doles as weapons and was instrumental in wooing some of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to switch allegiance to Beijing, leaving Taiwan with only 15 diplomatic allies. Even without formal official ties with many countries who switched allegiance to China, Taiwan’s engagement economically and in cultural domains in many countries it does business with has remained robust. However, Taiwan suffers from lack of international recognition as it cannot engage officially with world organisations.
Even in the World Health Organisation, it was deprived of observer status because China blocked it, even at a time its experience in handling coronavirus could have been of some help to the world community.
No wonder Taiwan saw Azar’s trip as a diplomatic coup and an opportunity to showcase its widely praised response to the virus. Beijing however saw it as another provocation from the US. When the US increases interactions with Taiwan and sells arms committed under the Taiwan Relations Act, Beijing sees it as a challenge to its sovereignty and defiance of its threat to take over the island by force. Azar’s remark that “Taiwan’s response to Covid-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwan’s society and culture”, infuriated Beijing. Seeing an opportunity and the praise pouring in from around the world, Taiwan started promoting the island as a model of democracy and sent millions of masks labeled “Made in Taiwan” to countries in need.
Taiwan was not intimidated when Chinese J-11 and J-10 fighter jets briefly crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait, even when Azar was on his way to Taiwan. The aircraft were tracked by land-based Taiwanese anti-aircraft missiles patrolling the area and forced to retreat.
Taiwanese President Tsai has spoken often of the need for the island to ramp up its defenses to safeguard its democracy from Beijing’s “coercive actions”. Such a commitment to accelerate the development of asymmetric capabilities, as explained by her during a video address to the Hudson Institute, a Washington based think tank, is under the rubric of the island nation’s defense concept. Taiwan’s cabinet has proposed a more than 10 per cent increase in the island’s military budget to $15.42 billion in response to Beijing’s aggression in the region.
Given China-Taiwan tensions, if a conflict erupts in the region it would be either centered on the South China Sea or on the Taiwan issue. China is best advised not to precipitate events, lest the costs be heavy for all.
The writer was formerly Senior Fellow at the IDSA, New Delhi