Arms sales to Taiwan self-fulfilling prophesy

The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, Southeast China's Taiwan. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Harboring the intention to use the Taiwan question as leverage to advance their anti-China agenda, members of a newly launched US House of Representatives committee claimed recently that they will travel to Taiwan to hold a hearing on arms sales to the island, a provocative move that will send the wrong signal to pro-independence forces on the Chinese island.

Given that the stated purpose of the new committee is to tackle the alleged "multifaceted threats" of China to the United States, the proposed visit comes as no surprise, as clearly its remit is how to exacerbate the strategic competition between Washington and Beijing.

Constantly playing the Taiwan card has become routine for Washington as it seeks to contain China's development and confront it on almost all geopolitical and economic fronts. US arms sales and congressional visits to the island have become more frequent as the anti-China hawks in Washington and Taiwan's pro-independence forces have put hand in glove in a bid to take advantage of each other's agenda.

Further upping the ante, they have been laying the groundwork for Ukraine-style precipitation of conflict with wild talk about "an imminent war between China and the US" over the Chinese island.

The tactic of the US using Taiwan as a geopolitical chess piece is simple and easy to be seen through: It is selling a China threat narrative so that the US can justify arming the Chinese island and is hollowing out the one-China principle through various political farces and high-profile official visits to the island.

Washington is eroding its own credibility and international image with its numerous provocations over the Taiwan question, and even most people on the island do not believe that the US will be willing to sacrifice even one American life for the island.

As Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, rightfully pointed out this week, the majority of Taiwan compatriots have realized that "independence" means war, and the Taiwan authorities' attempt to seek "independence" by buying ever more military hardware will only push Taiwan into a more dangerous situation.

As a Chinese saying goes, while the tree craves calm, the wind will not stop blowing. The further Washington seeks to breach the one-China policy and the three China-US joint communiques, the more it will dim the hopes for peaceful reunification.

If Washington's continual selling of weaponry to the secessionist-seeking administration of the island has done anything, it is raising Beijing's awareness of the need to strengthen the People's Liberation Army's capabilities to defend China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. After all, how can a sovereign country sit idle and allow others to supply the knives to some who hope to cut the bonds of kinship?