The name and logo of the Mainland Affairs Council are displayed at its headquarters in Taipei in an undated photograph.Photo: Wu Shu-wei, Taipei Times

By Chen Yu-fu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Beijing is likely to emphasize military power, legal mechanisms and economic integration to “unify” Taiwan in a new strategy to be revealed at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday.

China is preparing a new strategy to solve what it calls “the Taiwan question” that would likely be based on a document published last month titled The Overall Strategy for Solving the Taiwan Problem for the Party in the New Age, the council said in a report .

Beijing would almost certainly continue exerting diplomatic pressure and engage in military coercion to enact its “one China” principle and counter the development of Taiwanese nationalism, it said.

Military actions would likely include the normalization of aerial and maritime incursions across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and doubling down on military drills to deter the US, Japan and other states from intervening in a potential invasion of Taiwan, it said.

The displays of military power would additionally serve to suppress what China calls “Taiwan independence forces,” it said.

Beijing believes that a powerful military is the only effective instrument for defeating “splitism” in Taiwan, excluding the US and Japan from the Strait, and compelling Taipei into negotiations on favorable terms to China, it said.

These tactics are conceived to duplicate the success of the “Beijing model,” it said, referring to the CCP’s strategy of pressuring forces in the Chinese capital into capitulation without firing a shot during the Chinese Civil War.

China has made the unprecedented move to indict Yang Chih-yuan (杨志源), a Taiwanese citizen, on criminal charges of “endangering national security” and “secession,” it said.

Beijing has also implemented sanctions against seven Taiwanese officials and lawmakers it accused of being “independence die-hards,” including Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (Xiao Meiqin), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan ( Lin Feifan) and New Power Party (NPP) Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陈佳华), it said.

These actions suggest the CPP might enact additional domestic laws targeting Taiwanese politicians during the congress to intensify its use of legal, psychological and information warfare against Taiwan, it said.

Beijing is expected to step up on unilateral administrative and legal measures to target young Taiwanese, businesses and the general public for “united front” work after the COVID-19 pandemic eases in China, it said.

These measures would focus on blurring the legal distinction between Taiwanese residents in China and Chinese citizens in terms of rights and economic opportunities, as Beijing seeks to create the spiritual and material conditions for unification, it said.

The CCP would seek to frame efforts to unify Taiwan with China as its world historical mission, as evidenced by the strategy document published last month, it said.

That document did not state that Beijing would forgo deploying administrators and troops in Taiwan, unlike previous CCP white papers on Taiwan, the council said.

This change is likely prompted by internal discussions in Beijing following the 2019 protests in Hong Kong against an extradition bill, which highlighted the need to revise the “one country, two systems” formula, it said.

Beijing is anticipated to reiterate its commitment to peaceful unification under the “one country, two systems” scheme, the so-called “1992 consensus,” and its opposition to Taiwanese independence and foreign forces, the council said.

The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (Su Qi) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.

News source: TAIPEI TIMES