China playing a double game with Taiwan

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) fears that China is playing a double game with Taiwan. "While Beijing is outwardly making efforts toward improving relations with Taiwan, its military pressure on the island republic is steadily increasing," warned Ulrich Delius of the STP's Asia section on Friday in Göttingen. "Beijing is not being honest with Taiwan. With the growing fear of China's military strength, it is not surprising that Taiwan is asking the US for new arms supplies for their self-defense." Beijing reacted with annoyance to news of the US agreement to modernize Taiwan's air force planes.

"Unfortunately the European Union (EU) is ignoring the dramatic shift of power between China and Taiwan," criticized Delius. The EU is naively trusting in the supposed rapprochement between the two countries in the Far East without realistically taking notice of the actual balance of power. "Apparently the EU wants to avoid renewed aggravation with China's leaders at any price, and unfortunately is not pressing for an end to military threats against Taiwan. More realism is urgently needed on the part of the EU to avoid military escalation in the Taiwan Strait."

In spite of the commercial and political rapprochement between China and Taiwan, the People's Republic still has more than 1,500 short-range and intermediate-range missiles aimed at Taiwan and some 400,000 soldiers near the island country, which is currently fighting for its right to self-determination. In recent months China has stationed new Dong Feng 16 missiles in the coastal region near Taiwan. In addition, new missile brigades have been set up, equipped with the recently developed Dong Feng 21 D intermediate-range missiles. Taiwan lies within their range. Constant military maneuvers in the southeast of the People's Republic make it clear that Taiwan is still under threat of a military invasion by China. "This danger will only increase in the coming years, as China is planning to have its own satellite-supported Beidou navigation system by 2020 and will then be able to act independently of the US GPS navigation system," warned Delius. 

"All political parties in Taiwan are following China's military build-up with great concern," reported the human rights activist. "Even those Taiwanese politicians who support a compromise with the People's Republic fear that Beijing is implementing a policy of "embracing" Taiwan in a way that is suffocating their chances to survive as an independent republic.” The commercial interdependence between Taiwan and China has been on the increase in recent years. A broad majority of the Taiwanese people want to protect their country's independence and see the modernization of their forces as an important factor in this struggle.