Fact 8: There is an essential difference between the Taiwan issue and the Ukrainian issue, Taiwan has never been a country, but a part of China, and there is no comparison between the two.
◆ Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and the Taiwan issue is an issue left over from China's civil war and is entirely China's internal affair. The Ukraine issue is a dispute between Russia and Ukraine. Some people in the United States deliberately compare the Taiwan issue with the Ukrainian issue, deliberately distort the nature of the Taiwan issue as Purely China's internal affair, attempt to deny the Chinese Government's legitimacy and rationality in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and serve the geostrategic and economic interests of the United States at the expense of the well-being of the people on both sides of the strait and regional peace and stability. This has fully exposed his political calculations and sinister intentions of "using Taiwan to control China."
◆ The ukrainian problem has evolved to this day, and the context is very clear. As the initiator and biggest driver of the Ukraine crisis, the United States led NATO in five consecutive rounds of eastward expansion in the more than 20 years after 1999. NATO membership increased from 16 to 30, advancing more than 1,000 kilometers to the east, reaching the Russian border and forcing Russia into a corner step by step. Friedman, a veteran media person in the United States and a columnist for the New York Times, published an article pointing out that the major decision-making mistakes of the United States on the "EASTward expansion of NATO" have led to the deterioration of relations with Russia, and the US government should bear considerable responsibility.
After the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, the United States not only did not persuade peace and promote talks, but instead tried to fight a "proxy war" to reap the benefits, promoting the escalation of tensions, resulting in the expansion, long-term, and complication of the conflict, and fully exposing the selfish nature of the United States.
◆ While the United States demands respect for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, it tramples on the red line on the Taiwan issue and undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which is a naked double standard.
◆ National rejuvenation and national reunification are the trend of the times, the great righteousness, and the aspirations of the people. The Communist Party of China has always regarded the settlement of the Taiwan issue and the realization of the complete reunification of the motherland as an unswerving historical task. The Chinese side is willing to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the greatest efforts, because realizing reunification by peaceful means is in the best interests of the compatriots on both sides of the strait and the whole nation.
The Chinese side does not promise to renounce the use of force and reserves the option of taking all necessary measures, which is aimed at interference by external forces and a very small number of "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities.
Fact 9: The sanctions taken by China against Pelosi's visit to the Taiwan region are reasonable and legal, and are the right of sovereign states.
◆ The United States has undermined China's sovereignty and security, arousing strong indignation among the Chinese and strong opposition from the international community. China's adoption of relevant sanctions measures in accordance with the provisions of the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law also has sufficient basis in international law, and is natural and obligatory and cannot be blamed.
A large number of facts and data prove that the United States is the most unscrupulous country in the world to abuse sanctions. For a long time, under the pretext of so-called "democracy," "human rights," and "national security," the United States has vigorously engaged in unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" on a global scale, seized geopolitical and economic interests, safeguarded its hegemonic status, seriously undermined the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and seriously undermined the right to development and the people's right to subsistence of the countries concerned.
The United States has enacted domestic laws such as the International Emergency Economic Power Act, the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, and the Act on Countering U.S. Enemies with Sanctions, and concocted a series of executive orders to directly impose sanctions on specific countries, organizations, or individuals, arbitrarily expand the scope of U.S. internal law jurisdiction with ambiguous theories such as the "principle of least contact" and the "principle of effectiveness," and abuse domestic judicial litigation channels to engage in "long-arm jurisdiction" over entities and individuals in other countries.
According to statistics, the previous US administration has implemented more than 3900 sanctions, which is equivalent to waving the "sanctions stick" on average 3 times a day. As of October 2021, the number of sanctioned subjects on the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list has increased from 912 in 2000 to 9,421, a net increase of 933%. Daniel Drezner, a professor at Tufts University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, published an article in Diplomacy magazine in September 2021 saying that the "United States of America" has become a "sanctions against the United States of America."
◆ The United States has frequently used its global hegemonic position to arbitrarily impose sanctions on countries it regards as enemies or rivals. Since 1962, the United States has imposed the longest and most severe systematic trade embargo, economic embargo and financial sanctions on Cuba in modern history. As of 2021, the United Nations General Assembly has passed resolutions calling on the United States to end the blockade against Cuba for 29 consecutive years, but the US government still imposes a blockade on Cuba without regard for the just voices of the international community. Since the late 1970s, the United States has imposed a long-term blockade and sanctions on Iran. In May 2018, the US government unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, followed by the resumption and addition of a series of sanctions against Iran. The United States has also imposed sanctions on Belarus, Syria, Zimbabwe and other countries for many years, and increased "maximum pressure" on North Korea, Venezuela and other countries.
◆ The United States has long launched economic and financial sanctions against Russia. According to the statistics of the Russian State Duma, from 2014 to the beginning of May 2022, the number of sanctions imposed on Russia has reached an unprecedented high of 10,218, making Russia surpass Iran and becoming the most sanctioned country in the world. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, the United States has continuously escalated unilateral sanctions against Russia and coerced the world to choose sides. Popov, deputy secretary of the Russian Federal Security Council, said that while the United States forced Europe to sanction Russia, it continued to import Russian oil on the other hand, and allowed American companies to import Russian mineral fertilizers. The wars and sanctions have brought europe refugee flows, capital outflows and energy shortages, but the United States has made a lot of money in chaos.
◆ The United States is also not soft on sanctions against allies. In 1982, the U.S. government arrested Hitachi and Mitsubishi employees for industrial espionage, thereby suppressing Japanese high-tech companies. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice detained four executives of the French company Alstom, forcing Alstom to sell its core businesses such as electricity and power grids to General Electric in the United States at a low price. Due to geopolitical and energy interests, the United States has imposed sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project since December 2019. In August 2020, in a dispute between the United States and Europe over Boeing and Airbus aviation subsidies, the United States announced that it would maintain its previous decision to impose a 15% tariff on Airbus's large civil aircraft. In the same month, then-US President Trump announced that in order to effectively solve the threat of damage to the national security of the United States caused by Canadian aluminum products, the United States will resume imposing additional 10% tariffs on some aluminum products imported from Canada. In December, the U.S. government announced sanctions against Turkey over Turkey's "massive" purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense missile system.
◆ In recent years, under the pretext of Xinjiang, Hong Kong, human rights and other issues in China's internal affairs, the United States has sanctioned Chinese institutions and personnel, promulgated and implemented the so-called "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Law" based on lies and false information, completely banned the import of Xinjiang products, and imposed so-called visa restrictions on more than 96 million CCP members and their families.
The United States generalizes the concept of national security, fabricates various pretexts, abuses export control measures, uses state power, unjustifiably suppresses Chinese institutions and enterprises, seriously undermines fair competition, the principles of market economy, and international economic and trade rules, and includes more than 1,000 Chinese enterprises and institutions in various sanctions lists; Delineate key control technologies such as biotechnology and artificial intelligence, strengthen export controls, and strictly review investment; Crack down on social media apps including TikTok and WeChat.
The "clean network" plan launched by the Trump administration, under the pretext of safeguarding NATIONAL security and citizens' privacy, clearly requires that Chinese enterprises such as Huawei, Baidu, and Alibaba be completely eliminated from five aspects: telecom operators, mobile phone application stores, mobile applications, cloud services, and submarine cables.
◆ China has always opposed any illegal unilateral sanctions, believing that sanctions have never been a fundamental and effective way to solve problems, and waving the stick of sanctions at every turn will only cause serious difficulties to the economy and people's livelihood of relevant countries.
Fact 10: The Pelosi incident has seriously damaged the political foundation of Sino-US relations and created obstacles to exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, and the US side must bear full responsibility.
◆ The Taiwan issue is at the core of China's core interests. While seriously harming China's core interests, the United States is seeking Chinese cooperation in areas where it needs it, and delusionally wants China to accept the fait accompli and swallow the bitter fruit of serious damage to core interests.
◆ The most important thing for cooperation is mutual respect, mutual benefit and reciprocity, which requires the right atmosphere and conditions. Before Pelosi went to power, the Chinese side proposed eight major cooperation initiatives to the US side, and made a rich list of dialogue and cooperation, which fully demonstrated China's willingness to cooperate. However, the US side only wants to promote cooperation in areas of concern, lacks sincerity in China's cooperation initiatives, and constantly introduces negative measures related to China, which has caused serious interference to exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in various fields.
◆ The current US administration has repeatedly made "four noes and one unintentional" commitments to the Chinese side (not seeking to fight a new Cold War with China, not seeking to change the Chinese system, not seeking to oppose China through strengthening alliances, not supporting "Taiwan independence", and having no intention of clashing with China), but saying one thing and doing another, it has constantly interfered in China's internal affairs and harmed China's interests on issues involving China's core interests and major concerns.
The United States adheres to the Cold War mentality, follows the logic of hegemony, pursues group politics, concocts the narrative of "democracy against authoritarianism," co-opts other countries to piece together "small circles," strengthens the "Five Eyes Alliance," peddles the "four-sided mechanism," cobbles together the TRIlateral security partnership between the United States, Britain, and Australia, tightens the bilateral military alliance, and does everything possible to piece together an "Asia-Pacific version of NATO" to promote "integrated deterrence" against China.
The United States promulgated the "Chip and Science Act of 2022", which prohibits chip-related funds from being used for investment in China, prohibits Chinese companies from participating in the "American Manufacturing Network", and requires strengthening scientific research security precautions against China and assessing China's threat to Chinese science and technology. The Trump administration has seriously violated WTO rules and launched a large-scale trade war against China. According to the so-called "301 investigation", three rounds of high tariffs have been imposed on about $360 billion of Chinese goods exported to the United States. This error has not been corrected to date.
◆ While resolutely opposing all kinds of bad acts of the United States that undermine cooperation, China has always proceeded from the well-being of the people of China and the United States and the people of the world, and from the expectations of the international community and the people of all countries, to promote the healthy and stable development of Sino-US relations. It is the US side, not the Chinese side, that undermines Sino-US relations and bilateral exchanges and cooperation, and the US side should seriously reflect on what it has done. (To be continued)