Letters | Biggest winners of Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit? Tsai Ing-wen and her party, unless Beijing changes course

Readers discuss the implications of the US House speaker’s visit to Taiwan, the US’ obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act, and the importance of language to determining national allegiance

Reading Time:3 minutes

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (left) and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen greet each other during a meeting in Taipei on August 3. Photo: Taiwan Presidential Office/AP

Published: 2:30pm, 14 Aug 2022

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Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and its leader Tsai Ing-wen are the biggest winners of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to the island. Beijing had no choice but to react with military threats, which will turn off Taiwanese voters, resulting in more votes for the DPP and Tsai.

In 1996, Beijing also tried a similar military threat resulting in a landslide victory for Lee Teng-hui, the father of Taiwan’s independence movement.

It can be concluded that the majority of Taiwanese people do not accept Beijing’s reunification proposal based on “one country, two systems”. If Beijing does not change course, then war will be inevitable, and the US would be happy to watch such civil war, and not worry so much about China overtaking the US’ dominant position as a world power.

A new strategy “one Chinese, two systems” (一中兩制) could be the answer. If nearly 30 countries of different backgrounds and diverse culture can form a European Union, surely the People’s Republic of China and Chinese Taiwan can form a “Chinese Union”. A bilateral treaty can spell out common grounds such as travel, trade and heritage, and add more elements as the relationship improves.

The key is that the Taiwanese recognise themselves as Chinese by blood, but not under the authority of “one country” or the Chinese Communist Party. Taiwan is different from Hong Kong.

If Beijing would take such a new direction, the Kuomintang may have a chance to win elections in the future, a war could be averted, and the great Chinese rejuvenation would not be derailed.