TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute and former adviser to former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with VOA on Saturday (Sept. 24) that, in Thursday's (Sept. 22) speech, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅) likening Taiwan-China tensions to Hawaii-U.S. historical relations makes no sense at all.
Wang Yi is in the U.S. this week giving multiple talks. Behind his rhetoric calling for peaceful dialogue and cooperation when delivering a speech at Asia Society, Wang's remarks showed, in Miles Yu's (余茂春) eyes, his intention to help the CCP evade blame for raising tensions in bilateral relations with the U.S. and using military threats to intimidate Taiwan.
Yu explained that Hawaii became the 50th state of the U.S. after a referendum in 1959 in which the majority of voters approved the proposition that the territory should be admitted as a state, but Taiwanese people have never applied to join the People's Republic of China (PRC) and China has never exercised sovereignty or control over Taiwan since the creation of PRC in 1949.
Given these historical facts, Wang's statements at Asia Society made no sense at all, said Yu.
Yu also disagreed with Wang's deceitful portrayal of China as a regional peacemaker seeking a win-win partnership with the U.S. and blaming the U.S. for souring bilateral relations. Yu said China is becoming more coercive in the Indo-Pacific region, along with its dishonest trade practices, and that makes it difficult for the U.S. to get along with China.
Yu was referring to China's intellectual property infringements that undermine the profitability of U.S. firms. China's repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang makes the country hardly a respectable partner for the U.S., he added.
The former China adviser to the Trump administration described Wang's remarks in New York as merely "empty talk." "The future of Taiwan with China should be determined by the Taiwanese people; China should not leave out peaceful solutions but arbitrarily claim its sovereignty over Taiwan."
