China is threatening the US and Taiwan
But would China really go to war
Over a name?
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
The Financial Times reported last week that the Biden administration is considering allowing
Taiwan to change the name of its representative office in Washington to include the word “Taiwan.”
In response, the Chinese Communist Party threatened to attack Taiwan and maybe the US.
Don’t worry, it makes sense.
In a stupid kind of way.
The US and Taiwan don’t have official diplomatic relations.
That’s been the case since 1979, when the US switched from recognizing the Republic
of China, aka Taiwan, to recognizing the People’s Republic of China as the true government of
China.
And if you’re thinking, why can’t there just be two Chinas?
There are two Koreas.
There are two Congos.
Well back in the 1970s, the answer was that both Chinas were essentially claiming the
same territory, including both mainland China and Taiwan, and insisting that they were the
true government of all of China.
Think of it like Highlander.
There can be only one.
Plus the Chinese Communist Party is obviously the Kurgan.
But while both the PRC and the ROC both once claimed to be the true China, that’s not
so much the case anymore for the ROC, which mostly goes by Taiwan now.
The current Taiwanese government has more or less abandoned their claim over all of
mainland China, and they just want to interact with the rest of the world as Taiwan.
The problem is, the Chinese Communist Party will do anything it takes to keep that from
happening.
Including threatening to go to war.
So, most countries don’t have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
But they have unofficial diplomatic relations, including unofficial embassies.
They need these unofficial embassies because the reality is Taiwan is a sovereign country
with its own government and borders.
So other countries need a way to deal with things like travel visas.
The unofficial US embassy in Taiwan is called the American Institute in Taiwan.
The unofficial Taiwanese embassy in the US is called the Taipei Economic and Cultural
Representative Office.
If you think that’s a mouthful, it used to be called the Coordination Council for
North American Affairs.
Which was just confusing.
So what’s the big deal with changing the name of the unofficial embassy from the Taipei
Economic and Cultural Representative Office to the Taiwan Representative Office?
It’s a change that has support within the Biden administration, including from Biden’s
Asia czar Kurt Campbell, members of the National Security Council, and the State Department.
The Chinese Communist Party hates this.
Taking the “Economic and Cultural” part out of the name implies that the Representative
Office also represents Taiwan politically.
And the Communist Party doesn’t want other countries to officially use the word “Taiwan”
when dealing with...Taiwan.
In fact, the Chinese regime has been pressuring countries to remove the word Taiwan from their
unofficial Taiwanese embassies.
“Between 2017 and 2019, seven of Taipei’s missions in countries without diplomatic recognition,
including Nigeria, Jordan and Ecuador, had “Taiwan” or “Republic of China” forcibly
removed from their names by their host countries under pressure from Beijing.”
At this rate I’m surprised the Chinese regime hasn’t gotten mad because the URL of this
website is Taiwan embassy dot org.
It has gotten mad though, about the possible name change.
According to the foreign ministry, China has officially lodged “solemn” representations
to the US over the issue.
And my favorite state-run media, the Global Times, has gone further.
Much further.
Because it is the Communist Party’s barking Rottweiler.
The Global Times released an editorial saying China would teach the US and “Taiwan island”
a real lesson.
First it tries to frame changing the name of Taiwan’s representative office as the
US abandoning its One-China policy and an escalation toward recognizing Taiwan’s independence.
And it says if the US and Taiwan go through with the name change, China will have to recall
its ambassador from the US.
Because if the US isn’t stopped, then “We will have to face the possibility of more
‘Taiwan Representative Offices’ emerging in a batch of capital cities.”
The horror.
But of course a diplomatic response alone isn’t enough.
Because this touches on one of the Chinese Communist Party’s “red lines,” they
have to “take severe economic and military measures.”
The article then threatens economic sanctions, and even an economic blockade against Taiwan.
And it also says the People’s Liberation Army should fly fighter jets directly above
Taiwan’s airspace in order to claim it as their own.
A step the Global Times says “the mainland must take sooner or later.”
Now’s as good a time as any!
Because Taiwan won’t dare fight back.
And if they do, the Chinese regime will attack.
The Global Times article goes on to say that the Chinese regime is not scared of going
to war with the US and Taiwan.
And because it doesn’t look like the US and Taiwan will completely back down...
The Chinese Communist Party needs to be prepared “to blow them out of the water in the Taiwan
Straits.”
Lovely.
Now you might think the Chinese regime going to war over a name change is about as dumb
as going to war over a bucket, or over a guy named Jenkins getting his ear cut off.
Both of which happened.
But it’s not just about the name change.
It’s about America’s support for Taiwan.
In the Global Times’ eyes, the name change is the first step toward having US troops
in Taiwan.
And the Chinese Communist Party is also upset about a secret meeting that happened between
US and Taiwanese officials last week in Maryland.
It’s known as the Special Channel.
The Taiwanese officials included foreign minister Joseph Wu.
The Special Channel isn’t new.
But it’s been “traditionally kept under wraps to avoid antagonizing Beijing.”
And this is the first time the Biden administration has hosted high-level, in-person talks with
Taiwan.
Well, now US officials have leaked the meeting to the Financial Times, which means they don’t
care if this meeting antagonizes Beijing.
Hmmmm.
More after the break.
Welcome back.
The Chinese Communist Party is throwing a hissy fit over Taiwan wanting to rename its
unofficial embassy the Taiwan Representative Office.
The Party hates it when people call Taiwan the “c” word...country.
But they also hate the word Taiwan, because it implies Taiwan is a country that has equal
standing with China.
That’s why that Global Times article kept calling it “Taiwan island” instead.
The Chinese regime really goes all in on that Orwellian language manipulation.
Which is why Taiwan has to compete in the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei.”
But this latest brouhaha over the Taiwan Representative Office didn’t actually start with the US.
No, it started with that Baltic troublemaker: Lithuania.
To its credit, Lithuania, a country of 3 million people, has been standing up to the Chinese
Communist Party on a number of issues, including Taiwan.
Back in July, Lithuania and Taiwan announced they would open diplomatic facilities in each
others’ countries, aka unofficial embassies.
Taiwan’s will be called the “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.”
Oh no, they said Taiwanese!
The Chinese Communist Party hates this.
They retaliated by trying to punish Lithuania politically and economically.
They recalled the Chinese ambassador to Lithuania.
And they stopped trade with Lithuania.
But in the face of this bullying, Lithuania didn’t back down.
In fact, Lithuania recalled its own ambassador to China.
And is urging the EU to cut its reliance on China.
But Lithuania is an outlier.
Like I said earlier, the Chinese regime has pressured a bunch of countries to change the
name of their Taiwan representative offices.
And they’re not just bullying countries.
Chinese officials are using their positions in the United Nations to force organizations
around the world to change how they name Taiwan.
They’ve even targeted a Colorado high school.
“China sits on the U.N. Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which authorizes groups big
and small to participate at U.N. functions.”
Chinese officials look for any references those groups have ever made to Taiwan, for
example, on their website, and if it doesn’t say “Taiwan, Province of China” they deny
the application until the group fixes it.
Most groups just do it because they want to be able to go to the UN.
And because they probably think it’s just some bureaucratic administrative thing that
doesn’t really matter.
They don’t understand what the Chinese Communist Party is doing.
Although changing a bureaucratic, administrative thing at the UN is one way the Chinese regime
was able to take over Hong Kong from the British.
I talked about that in this episode from 2017.
Anyway, no group is too small for the Chinese regime to target.
They even went after the World Bicycle Industry Association for working with a group called
the Taiwan Bicycle Association.
That reminds me of last year when China pressured a birdwatching organization to cut ties with
a Taiwanese birdwatching group.
First birdwatching, then bicycling?
What other hobbies will the Communist Party target?
Watch out, boogie boarders, you’re next.
Hey remember back in 2018 when China threatened airlines for not explicitly saying Taiwan
was part of China?
That was the same year a local council in Queensland, Australia painted over a fish
with the Chinese word for “Taiwan” written on it in the colors of Taiwan’s flag.
The Taiwan fish was painted by two Taiwanese-Australian kids as part of a public art project.
But the Chinese Communist Party has gotten people so scared of offending China that they’ll
censor a painted fish.
This might seem almost farcical.
And it is.
But it’s also dangerous.
I’ll tell you why after the break.
Welcome back.
The Chinese Communist Party is trying to force the world to refer to Taiwan as a province
of China.
Instead of the sovereign country that it is in reality.
It’s an interesting philosophical question.
If no one recognizes Taiwan as a country, does it still exist?
Some people argue that changing the name of Taiwan’s unofficial embassy is not worth
it.
The Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, argues that it’s a mistake.
Among other things, they say it’s not useful because it’s a purely symbolic gesture.
And “Instead of spending energy on symbolic issues, the United States and Taiwan should
be working toward a bilateral trade agreement, collaborating on supply chain security, and
improving deterrence in the Taiwan Strait.”
Of course the US and Taiwan should be working on those important issues.
But allowing Taiwan to reclaim its name is not a symbolic gesture.
It is meaningful.
That’s because the Chinese Communist Party, like with all communist regimes, doesn’t
use language as symbolism.
It uses language as a very real way to gain power and control.
By making sure that no one calls Taiwan a country, they make people think it’s not
a country.
The Party is using language to claim Taiwan and erase its existence.
That’s because the Party can’t erase Taiwan’s existence through an invasion...yet.
This is psychological warfare, part of the Chinese regime’s political warfare against
Taiwan and against the rest of the world.
The Communist Party is trying to demoralize Taiwan and to convince other countries it’s
not worth defending Taiwan.
That Global Times article I talked about earlier is completely about psyching out both the
US and Taiwan.
Making them back down.
But there’s only one way to deal with a bully, which is to stand up and fight back.
That’s why China is so mad at Lithuania.
How dare such a small country stand up to the Chinese Communist Party?
What if other countries start following their blueprint?
Renaming Taiwan’s unofficial embassy the Taiwan Representative Office is the verbal
equivalent of America’s Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea.
It tells the Chinese regime: we’re not listening to you because you have no control here.
The Chinese Communist Party hates this.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a member of the China Uncensored 50-Cent
Army, a viewer who supports our channel on the crowdfunding websites Patreon and Locals.
Ace-Ventura asks on Locals:
How does someone properly recognize the evils of the CCP without unknowingly becoming more
prejudiced against ethnically Chinese people?
Well, Ace, like any other group of people, Chinese people aren’t a monolith.
Once you start thinking “Chinese people are like this” that’s not good.
And in a lot of ways, ordinary Chinese people are the CCP’s first victims.
They are constantly monitored and censored, they live their lives knowing there are certain
things they’re not allowed to think or say.
Even if they leave China, they can be monitored and their actions used to threaten friends
and family in China.
Also, Chinese people can’t vote.
They’re not choosing their leaders.
Are there Chinese people who support the CCP and don’t believe it’s done anything wrong?
Of course.
There are Western people who believe the same thing, and they don’t even live under Chinese
censorship.
Treat people as individuals.
Try to have empathy and compassion.
And don’t judge people based on a group identity.
Thanks for your question, Ace-Ventura.
And thanks for supporting China Uncensored on Locals.
If you haven’t checked out Locals yet, come join us.
We’re starting a new community there away from YouTube censorship.
It’s free to join, but if you become a paid subscriber, you get some additional perks,
like having us answer your questions in our exclusive Locals livestreams.
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Once again I’m Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.