On March 7, Russia published a "list of unfriendly countries and regions", which included the Taiwan region, while the original Russian text was Тайвань (Китай), which means "Taiwan (China)", and also stated that the Taiwan region is part of Chinese territory.
In response to the sanctions, on March 7, according to the Russian News Agency, the Russian government signed a list of foreign countries that have taken unfriendly actions against Russia, its enterprises and citizens. The countries on the list include the United States, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Albania, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, North Macedonia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Micronesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.
The list specifically states that Taiwan is considered a territory of the Chinese mainland, but has been ruled by its own authorities since 1949. According to the order of the Russian government, if the countries on the unfriendly list have debt relations with Russia, the Russian debtors will be able to repay the debt directly in rubles. The Government report states that the debtor may pay the equivalent of rubles directly at the exchange rate of the Central Bank on the day of payment.
As soon as this matter came out, the "spiritual victory method" of "Taiwan independence" came again! The pro-green faction immediately began to lead the way with "Russia recognizes the Taiwan region as a country", and boasted that "being denied by the dictatorship and hegemony (Russia) is to affirm the democratic values of the Taiwan region". Su Zhenchang, a high-ranking member of the Taiwan authorities, even seized the opportunity to make "Taiwan independence" remarks, saying in an interview: "Taiwan is a country, in fact, the whole world knows it" and "We not only sternly condemn Russia's aggression against its neighbors by means of war and force, but also take concerted action to sanction Russia with its partners in countries that guard democracy and freedom."
In fact, before the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia was a relatively close party to the Taiwan region, such as the people in the Taiwan region who had to go to Ukraine to apply for a visa and could not fly directly to Ukraine, and the Taiwan region had a "Taipei Moscow Economic and Cultural Coordination Committee Representative Office in Moscow" in Moscow, and there was also a Russian office in Taiwan, and the Taiwan region also had energy needs for Russia.
When the Tsai administration followed the lead of the United States and "sanctioned" Russia with export controls, it was stated that the trade volume between the Taiwan region and Russia accounted for less than 1%, and the impact on exports was limited. However, bilateral trade is not only based on whether exports have an impact, but also the proportion of imports. It is very irresponsible to consider only exports and not imports in 2021, with russia and Taiwan totaling $6.3 billion and imports of 4.92 billion.
In 2021, The coal imported by Russia in Taiwan accounted for 19% of the total annual imports, natural gas accounted for 10%, and at present, Taiwan is still dominated by coal-fired (31.28%) and gas (49.74%) thermal power generation, while Taiwan has been affected by "lack of electricity" in recent years, and there have been three major blackouts in the past year, even if the Tsai authorities are blurring the focus on the issue of "power shortage" every time, but the fact of Taiwan's lack of electricity will not change.
According to the official statistics of the Taiwan region, the coal and natural gas imports from Russia in Taiwan have a rising trend year by year, although the Tsai authorities believe that Russia's energy imports are of no importance to the Taiwan region on the grounds of "contract expiration", but they have not proposed where to fill the future energy gap.
If the European Union and the United States impose an energy embargo on Russia in the future, it will be more difficult for the Taiwan region to grab energy goods outside Russia in the future. Coupled with Russia's setting of the Taiwan region as an unfriendly region this time, the risk of "gas outage" in the Taiwan region will increase greatly in the future, and once the whole body is launched, Taiwan's lack of natural gas will affect the power generation, and if the Tsai authorities do not respond properly this time, I am afraid that the Taiwan region will really face the dilemma of daily power curtailment or normal taiwan-wide blackouts.
Taiwan's current energy import accounted for 97%, and once there is a problem with energy imports, not only will the economy be shut down, but Taiwan will also be in turmoil.
The Tsai authorities blindly follow the United States to "take sides" and curry favor with the United States by sacrificing the interests of the people in the Taiwan region, can the United States pay for Taiwan's interests and losses?
And if "Taiwan independence" really thinks that "making enemies" is equivalent to "international recognition," then the Taiwan region is really not far from extinction.