On Tuesday, November 23, 2021, the United States has invited Taiwan for a “Democracy Summit.” This event will take place between December 9 and 10, 2021. This is a virtual event that will assemble more than 100 democratic governments around the world to deliberate on democratic values.
The summit excluded countries that do not practice democracies. According to the Wall Street Journal, China and Russia have not been invited by the Biden administration to grace this occasion.
However, China is not happy about Taiwan’s inclusion in this submit because of the “One China policy.” This policy stipulates that the United States and other countries should recognize, acknowledge, and have formal ties or relations with China rather than treating Taiwan as a sovereign nation. China sees Taiwan as part of mainland China.
Therefore, Taiwan should not be engaged or invited to participate in summits such as the Conference of the Parties[COP26], United Nations General Assembly, and Democracy Summit. An invitation to Taiwan to attend these events meant that Taiwan is gradually gaining its freedom from China. A situation China doesn’t want. Hence its anger towards the Biden administration for inviting Taiwan to the virtual Democracy Summit.
Many countries including the United States recognize Taiwan as an independent or sovereign state. This infuriates China because they feel anyone or country that engages directly with Taiwan at the diplomatic level is interfering with China’s national government.
China is strongly disappointed with the US over its gesture with Taiwan. According to China, the United States has made a grave mistake by inviting Taiwan to take part in the next month’s virtual Democracy Summit.
This is not the first time the United States and China are at loggerheads. For example, in 20218, the US raised 25% tariffs on imported steel and 10% on aluminum on also from China.
It was not long before China responded with $34 billion of tariffs on goods imported to China [Stewart, 2018]. The tariffs and counter-tariffs mark the beginning of a trade war between arguably the two biggest and most important economies in the world.
The “Summit for Democracy” was a campaign promise by President Biden as part of his foreign policy agenda. The next event is expected to take place next year.
Will the “Summit for Democracy” help Taiwain secure its independence from China now? Certainly not. However, the recent invitation by the US to Taiwan sends a strong signal to China that Taiwan will not be an easy grab. This also implies that the United States will support Taiwan against Chinese aggression.
