World News | Macron, Von Der Leyen's Recent China Visit Muddied Waters by Not Providing United European Front

Brussels [Belgium], April 14 (ANI): French President, Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President, Ursula Von Der Leyen's recent China visit may have muddied the waters by not providing a united European strategic approach to the China-Taiwan situation and certainly tensions between these global powers are not abating any time soon, reported Europe-Asia Foundation (EAF).

Moreover, in the Taiwan-China-US situation, both sides are playing what could be referred to as "transit diplomacy".

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The Americans did it when the president of Taiwan made a fleeting visit to their country. The Chinese did it when a former Taiwanese president visited the mainland. The so-called anger and hurt China expresses by launching military drills is, thus far, nothing but a calculated show of displeasure, reported EAF.

The Chinese government let the world know it was angry over the meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

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The meeting came a week after Ing-wen was honoured in New York. Ing-wen's visit to the US on the way to a long tour of Central America came at a time when there is deep and growing hostility to China. The Americans left no stone unturned in using the occasion to "cock a snook" at China, though officially they downplayed the event, reported EAF.

Under Washington's longstanding "One China" policy, the US acknowledges China's position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognised Beijing's claim to the island of 23 million. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, it is also legally bound to provide the democratic island with the means to defend itself.

For Taiwan, the rare high-level, bipartisan meeting is a timely show of US support, as China ramps up diplomatic and military pressure on the self-ruling island it claims as part of its territory. But the last time Tsai met with a US House Speaker - during Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei last August, Beijing retaliated by holding days of large-scale military drills and firing missiles over the island, pushing tensions to their highest in decades. This time around, Beijing's reaction - although it was initially restrained, the recent air exercises, however, demonstrate that little has changed in their approach.

Meanwhile, the political significance of Tsai's meeting with McCarthy is unavoidable. It is the highest-level audience a sitting Taiwan president has received on American soil, with an official second in line to the presidency after the vice president.

China lost no time in launching military drills close to Taiwan. China will send planes, ships and personnel into the maritime areas and airspace of the Taiwan Strait, off the northern and southern coasts of the island, and to the island's east, said Shi Yin, a PLA spokesperson.

The report detailed the type of weapons China would use, which included long-range rocket artillery, naval destroyers, missile boats, air force fighters, bombers, jammers and refuellers. China ended three days of military drills around Taiwan on Monday saying they had tested integrated military capabilities under actual combat conditions, having practised precision strikes and blockading the island that Beijing views as its own.

But China does not publicise the parallel transit diplomacy it indulged in around the time it publicly criticised Ing-wen's US visit. In fact, it mounted a massive charm offensive by inviting President Tsai's predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou, to tour the mainland, reported EAF.

Ma went on an unprecedented five-city tour, ostensibly to pay homage to his ancestors. He visited their graves in central China. But the trip is also political. In fact, it's the first time a former president of Taiwan has been invited to the People's Republic of China since its founding in 1949. (ANI)

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