By Zhu Songling
A delegation of the legislature of China's Taiwan region visited the US a few days ago, where they made a high-profile push for so-called "Taiwan-US maritime security cooperation." The head of the delegation, Wang Ting-yu, even boasted that a senior US security official described Taiwan as an irreplaceable presence during the visit. This remark was repeatedly hyped up by Taiwan's media supportive of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as a so-called "major diplomatic breakthrough." However, such self-deceptive rhetoric cannot conceal the grim reality that certain figures in Washington are making ruthless strategic calculations at Taiwan's expense and that the DPP authorities' external policy has been a complete failure.
The so-called notion that "Taiwan is irreplaceable" is nothing more than a line the US uses to coax the DDP authorities into serving its Indo-Pacific strategy and willingly acting as a pawn in Washington's geopolitical game. What US politicians truly mean by calling Taiwan "irreplaceable" is not that it is an indispensable "partner," but rather a strategically irreplaceable "tool" in their geopolitical calculations.
The DPP authorities have been relentlessly repackaging and amplifying the so-called notion that "Taiwan is irreplaceable," attempting to create the illusion on the island that Taiwan's international standing is on the rise, when in fact, the reality is quite the opposite. Since the DPP came to power, more than a dozen countries have severed ties with the Taiwan authorities. The DPP authorities have consistently refused to face a solid truth that under the one-China principle, any so called "diplomatic effort" aimed at challenging China's sovereignty and territorial integrity is nothing but drinking poison to quench thirst.
The DPP authorities have distorted their so-called “diplomatic efforts” into a political tool. Domestically, these actions are meant to project confidence and rally support. Internationally, they are little more than staged performances aimed at creating the illusion of diplomatic breakthroughs. At their core, such maneuvers are designed to conceal the administration’s incompetence, divert public attention from pressing social issues, and score political points in upcoming elections.
The real meaning behind the notion that "Taiwan is irreplaceable" lies in Washington's reluctance to see the island lose its value as a geopolitical pawn. Taiwan's true path to international engagement has never depended on currying favor with the US but on returning to the broader course of national rejuvenation. Any "external exchanges" that deviate from the framework of the one-China principle will ultimately lead Taiwan down a dead end.
(The author is the director of the Institute of Political Science, Beijing Union University.)
Editor's Note: Originally published on opinion.huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
