Ukraine crisis and the dynamics in Taiwan Strait | Deep Dive
India Today
What’s happening in Ukraine holds important lessons for Taiwan and its leaders.
At a time when the whole world is focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a different kind of war is playing out in the Taiwan Strait a public opinion war.
Given the many parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan, the Ukraine war is being closely followed and widely discussed in Taiwan. As early as January 28, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen personally chaired a "national security high-level meeting" to discuss the Ukraine crisis and its possible impact on the Taiwan Strait and formed a "Ukrainian Status Response Team". She also joined the United States and other Western powers to condemn the Russian attack on Taiwan and issued economic sanctions against Moscow. Since then, discourses like “Taiwan sympathises with Ukraine” or “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow”, etc, have gained currency both within the island and beyond, which has apparently made China uneasy.
China officially rejected the linking of the Ukraine and Taiwan issue. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a regular press conference on February 23, 2022, categorically stated, “Taiwan for sure is not Ukraine... It is unwise of certain people of the Taiwan authorities to latch on to and exploit the Ukraine issue to their advantage.” Chinese state media called it a “discourse trap” set by the West and objected to it on the following grounds.
Firstly, it is argued that the Ukraine issue is “a diplomatic and security issue in the context of the game of great powers” while the Taiwan issue is China’s internal affair. To confuse the two is to fall into the discourse trap of equating Taiwan with a sovereign country.
Secondly, it helps the ruling dispensation in Taiwan to hype the mainland’s “military threat” so as to win the sympathy of the international community, “internationalise” the Taiwan issue and also incite “anti-China” sentiment within the island.
Finally, the Chinese side feels that by bundling Ukraine and Taiwan under the banner of democracy, efforts are being made to sell the rhetoric of “democracy against dictatorship” to the international community. It is meant to project that China and Russia are two dictatorships that are threatening the survival of two “democratic countries” with similar military means. Meanwhile, the United States is working with its allies and partners to uphold the international order and defend the legitimacy of democratic values a discourse that China simply abhors.
Although officially China rejects comparing Taiwan with Ukraine, however, the popular discourse on the Chinese internet seems quite the reverse. Chinese commentators are using the Ukraine crisis as a negative example to warn the Taiwanese government and its people of dire consequences for their anti-China stance.
