China calls end to Taiwan war games

The opposition party, which favours closer ties with Beijing, sends a delegation to the mainland, angering President Tsai Ing-wen.

The Kuomintang branch office in Kinmen islands on Thursday. KMT deputy leader Andrew Hsia is heading a delegation to China. Picture: AFP

China has declared an end to its military exercises around Taiwan but reaffirmed its willingness to use force to take control of the self-ruled island while withdrawing an earlier pledge to not send troops to Taiwan if Taipei were to submit peacefully to Beijing’s rule.

The Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said late on Wednesday that it had successfully completed several days of live-fire military drills around Taiwan, bringing to an end a week of military exercises in response to a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island, which the Chinese Communist Party claims as part of its territory.

The drills, slated to last four days, were extended indefinitely on Monday before coming to a close days later. The PLA said on Wednesday it would continue regular patrols in the Taiwan Strait.

As China wound down its manoeuvres on Wednesday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued its first white paper in 22 years, reaffirming its openness to using military force to bring the island under its control, if necessary.

The paper also repeated its longstanding offer for Taiwan to willingly submit to its control under a one-country, two-systems framework similar to the one used to govern Hong Kong upon its handover from British to Chinese control in 1997.

It also removed a clause from the versions published in 1993 and 2000 that ruled out the dispatch of Chinese troops and civilian administrators to Taiwan should the ­island agree to a one-country, two-systems arrangement.

The Taiwanese government’s Mainland Affairs Council condemned the white paper, declaring that “the Republic of China is a sovereign country”, referring to Taiwan by its formal name. “The CCP regime has never ruled Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu for a single day,” it said referring to the four major island groupings controlled by Taipei.

The MAC also said opinion polls showed the Taiwanese public was disgusted with the one-country, two-systems model.

Separately on Wednesday, members of Taiwan’s opposition party departed on a previously planned trip to China’s mainland, sparking allegations of disloyalty from Taiwan’s ruling party.

Kuomintang deputy leader Andrew Hsia played down the significance of the timing of his trip.

He said at Taipei’s Taoyuan airport the visit had been scheduled months earlier, well before the recent escalation in tensions prompted China to encircle the island with live-fire military drills.

“If you can accomplish something good, then any time is a good time,” said Mr Hsia, who previously headed the MAC.

Mr Hsia said his delegation wouldn’t visit Beijing, sticking instead to cities where large numbers of Taiwanese were studying and working, including in the southern provinces of Fujian and Guangdong.

Even so, Mr Hsia, who will quarantine in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen upon arrival in line with China’s Covid-containment measures, wouldn’t rule out an in-person meeting with China’s leadership, saying “Communication and dialogue can only be a good thing” .

Mr Hsia also de-emphasised the significance of China’s new white paper. “Mainland China’s position is very clear, just like our position is very clear,” he said.

“I’m not going to act like it has changed our entire reality just because they’ve said some words.”

In a speech on Wednesday to her ruling Democratic Progressive Party, President Tsai Ing-wen criticised the KMT visit, while the party said Mr Hsia’s trip undermined Taiwanese unity and disrespected the military.

“What the people of Taiwan want is peace; not to provoke or escalate conflict but to safeguard sovereignty and national security,” Ms Tsai said.

The MCA said the KMT delegation had insisted on the trip despite having been urged against it.

Taiwan’s two major parties differ on how to handle the island’s relationship with China. Many supporters of the DPP favour independence. The KMT, a historical rival of the CCP that retreated to Taiwan after losing the civil war in 1949, is committed to the sovereignty of Taipei, but favours closer economic ties with the mainland.

Mr Hsia’s trip comes ahead of November local elections, seen as a gauge of Ms Tsai’s popularity, though she is barred by law from running again when her second term expires in 2024.

The Wall Street Journal