“Beijing will surely make a lot of noise, as usual, but there will be no sequel”, estimated Monday August 15 on franceinfo Marie Holzman, sinologist, president of the association Solidarité Chine. Two weeks after Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan denounced by China, a new delegation from the American Congress arrives in Taipei.
franceinfo: Is this visit surprising?
Marie Holzmann: No. Visits by delegations from the US Congress are frequent and have been even during the period of Covid which has hit Taiwan. Don’t overdo it on this tour. The situation in China remains fairly discreet. We have the reactions of GlobalTimes which is a hyper nationalistic, hyper aggressive magazine, but these reactions are in the English version of the magazine and not in the Chinese version. So, this is propaganda for the Western public to say: we will be adamant, we won’t let anyone near the island of Taiwan. As for the military maneuvers around the island, they began with the visit of Nancy Pelosi and continued until yesterday. So it was more a continuation of this last visit than the arrival of this delegation, even if the Americans are adding a layer to it. If Nancy Pelosi’s visit was so badly received, it is because since 1991 she has constantly repeated her support for the democrats in China, criticized the 1989 repression in Tiananmen Square, called for the release of Chinese dissidents, received the Dalai Lama. So the visit of this delegation is less important. Beijing will surely make a lot of noise, as usual, but there will be no sequel.
Shouldn’t Washington have canceled this visit?
We have seen the acceleration of Beijing’s takeover of Hong Kong, the people of Hong Kong have resisted for two years with extraordinary courage, no one has intervened. The Americans thought enough was enough. We have a war in Ukraine, we are not going to see a new war in Taiwan. They said they support Taiwan and they are showing it with great strength and messages of peace. If the Taiwan Strait were permanently disrupted by military threats, it would endanger the entire world economy.
“The Americans assume their commitment while no one has assumed their commitment vis-à-vis Hong Kong which is now completely under the boot of Beijing and which has become part of this vast dictatorship without any individual freedom.”
Marie Holzman, sinologistat franceinfo
What are the similarities between Hong Kong and Taiwan?
Taiwanese don’t want to be the Hong Kong of today, they say they are becoming the Hong Kong of yesterday. The Chinese are starting to tell Taiwan that there is going to be ‘one country, two systems’, but that they are going to reunify China. The Taiwanese say that one country and two systems work for a while and when Beijing wants to regain power, it’s over. So they didn’t want to. Taiwan has full autonomy from China. Since 1949, Taiwan has led its independent life. They have an elected president, it’s a democracy that works very well, it has its currency, its flag, its tradition, its ethnic groups. It is a completely independent country. It is both different and not very different from China. Taiwan is objectively part of China as a cultural sphere, Taiwan claims authorship of Sun Yat-sen and so does the Chinese government. There are historical and cultural ties that cannot be denied. But the problem is that the government of Taiwan said as early as 1949 that it wanted to reunify China, but only in a context that suited them. Supporters of reunification want democracy. President Tsai Ing-wen wants to maintain the status quo and does not want to hear about reunification.