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Letters | China’s conciliatory white paper on Taiwan deserves a fair hearing
- Readers discuss the need for China and the West to tread lightly in the dispute over Taiwan, the impact of Singapore’s fake news law, and the recent bout of imported malaria cases in Hong Kong
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Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong is right: what is most needed now is a de-escalation of tensions over Taiwan.
And China’s recently released white paper on Taiwan is a step in the right direction. It emphasises that “every effort will be made for peaceful reunification” with military force only remaining an option “should independence-seekers go too far”, as your editorial put it (“White paper makes it clear intervention by China’s military is last resort”, August 10).
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All players in this dispute must turn down the rhetorical temperature to improve relations between China and the West.
The West needs to better understand China’s perception of Taiwan, arising from the Chinese civil war between communist and nationalist forces, with the latter being defeated and forced from the Chinese mainland onto Taiwan in 1949.
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And China needs a better understanding of the West’s perception of the Indo-Pacific status quo, arising as that did from conquest when the allies defeated Japan in World War II.
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