Why Is the Chinese Communist Party Obsessed With Reunifying Taiwan?

People's Liberation Army (PLA) storm ashore from landing crafts in an exercise on the mainland coast close to Taiwan on Sept. 10, 1999. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Commentary

Entering 2021, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to flex its military strength in the Taiwan Strait, drawing attention from the international community. Will the CCP reunify Taiwan by force? Why is it obsessed with reunifying Taiwan?

There are four main reasons behind the CCP’s behavior in the Taiwan Strait.

First, Taiwan Is a Sore Point for the CCP

In 1921, under the control of the Communist Party of the former Soviet Union, a new political party—the CCP emerged in China. At the time, it was just a branch of the Communist International under the Soviet Communist Party. The CCP was founded with the immediate goal of subverting the Republic of China (ROC), China’s legitimate government. On Nov. 7, 1931, the CCP established the Chinese Soviet Republic within the territory of the ROC when Japan invaded the three northeastern provinces of China and the country was in crisis.

From 1921 to 1949, the CCP mainly did one thing, which was to subvert the ROC by any means it could. In the end, it succeeded, and the ROC was forced to withdraw to Taiwan.

The name of Communist China is the People’s Republic of China. The name is a lie itself.

The ancestors of the CCP are not the ancestors of the Chinese nation, but Marx from the West. The theoretical source of the CCP is not the five thousand years of traditional Chinese culture, but the Communist Manifesto published by Marx 172 years ago. Therefore, the CCP cannot represent China.

The 72-year rule of the CCP has deprived the Chinese people of their freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom from fear, and freedom from want. Therefore, the CCP is not a republic at all, it appropriated the concept.

What is a republic? “Fair and free elections are another basic criterion to judge whether a country truly practices republican politics,” according to the CCP’s own website, Baidu. In its 72 years in power, the CCP has never held a fair and free election. In this respect only, the CCP regime has nothing to do with a republic. It is just a brutal totalitarian regime.

Although the CCP, which illegally stole power, has occupied a large part of China’s territory and ruled mainland China for 72 years, the legitimate government of China, the Republic of China (ROC), still exists. The seals of the ROC, which symbolize the legitimate government of China, are still handed down in Taiwan. For the CCP, the ROC is a thorn in its flesh. If the thorn is not plucked out, it’ll feel uncomfortable every single day.

Second, the CCP’s Taiwan Policy Has Failed

In the 1980s, former CCP leader Deng Xiaoping proposed the idea of “one country, two systems” in order to solve the Taiwan issue. Later, Deng proposed to implement “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong after its reunification on July 1, 1997, as a preview of the future “reunification” of Taiwan.

On Jan. 2, 2019, the current CCP leader Xi Jinping delivered a speech about his intention to “unify” Taiwan using the “one country, two systems” model. However, in June 2019, the largest anti-CCP tyranny campaign in Hong Kong’s history broke out. Since June 12, 2019, the CCP has escalated its violent crackdown on Hong Kongers. Hong Kong has quickly degenerated into a city where “police power is paramount” and “one country, two systems” exists in name only. The atrocities committed by the CCP in Hong Kong have awakened the Taiwanese to the hypocrisy of “one country, two systems.”

In 2020, Taiwan held four democratic votes: the presidential election, the Legislative Council election, the recall of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu, the election of Chen Chi-Mai as the new mayor of Kaohsiung. The CCP tried in every possible way to interfere in these four democratic elections, but it turned out that refusing the CCP had already become widespread public opinion in Taiwan.

Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member who opposed the CCP, was re-elected president with a large majority; the DPP who opposed the CCP once again became the majority party in the Legislative Assembly; Chen Chi-Mai, a DPP member who opposed the CCP, won the Kaohsiung mayoral election; Han Kuo-yu, a Kuomintang (KMT) member supported by the CCP, was dismissed by the Kaohsiung citizens with a large majority after his big defeat in the presidential election.

The CCP has failed to attack Taiwan with both infiltration and military threat. “One country, two systems” has become a propaganda slogan that no one believes.

Third, the Need to Oppose Capitalism

Karl Marx, the ancestor of the CCP, hated capitalism. He shouted 172 years ago that capitalism must be defeated. Generations of communists fought against capitalism under the banner of Marxism. The Communist parties in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe fought against capitalism for decades but ended in failure. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the whole Communist International of Eastern Europe, led by the former Soviet Union, collapsed, and the capitalist system was restored in these countries.

After the collapse of the Communist International in Eastern Europe, the CCP became the single largest communist party in the world. Under the cover of Marxism-Leninism, it continues to be the enemy of capitalism.

When the CCP “recovered” Hong Kong in 1997, it promised the world that “one country, two systems” would remain unchanged in Hong Kong for 50 years and that Hong Kong’s capitalist system would be preserved. However, socialism and capitalism are two systems with fundamentally opposing values and incompatible in many attributes. How can it tolerate the capitalist system in Hong Kong to remain unchanged for 50 years?

After July 1, 1997, the CCP began to infiltrate Hong Kong as “boiling a frog in warm water” and to erode “one country, two systems.” In 2019, Hong Kongers could not tolerate any more and came to a final outburst. The CCP took the opportunity to turn Hong Kong into “one country, one system.” The “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy” proposed by Deng Xiaoping back then has become “those who love the CCP rule Hong Kong and follow the CCP’s command.”

After the CCP has taken Hong Kong, Taiwan will be the next target. However, Taiwan is not an isolated Taiwan, but a Taiwan that shares universal values with capitalist countries around the world. Taiwan is a strategic location in the first island chain of the free world, led by the United States, to defend against the threat of the CCP. If the CCP takes Taiwan, it will directly threaten capitalist Japan, Korea, and the Philippines in the near future, and directly threaten the United States in the far future, and then directly threaten the whole capitalist world.

The capture of Taiwan will serve multiple purposes for the CCP. It is impossible for the CCP not to harass Taiwan.

Fourth, the Need to Shift Focus Away From Domestic Conflict

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP, which has survived by unscrupulous means. The Party has no moral or legal boundaries.

Fujian Province, across the Taiwan Strait, is an important base for the CCP’s assault on Taiwan. However, Deng Luyan, the eldest son of Deng Keming, former deputy commander of the Fuzhou Military Region, published an article in 2015 saying, “Corruption in the military is very serious. When it comes to raking in money, it will only be more underground, more sinister, and more rampant than officials of local governments.”

In August 2011, when Zuo Ying (former deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress), the wife of Liu Peishan, former political commissar of the Fuzhou Military Region, died of illness, more than 20 children of high-ranking military officials went to attend the farewell ceremony. Deng Luyan saw for himself how the guests presented a large number of cash gifts. He talked to a friend about it that night, and the friend said, “Liu Peishan’s eldest son is the deputy political commissar of the General Logistics Department (of the Central Military Commission). His younger son is the deputy director of the General Armaments Department (of the Central Military Commission). Do you know how many subordinate units these two departments have in Shanghai? Dozens of them! What subordinate unit would dare to neglect the funeral of their mother? It’s normal for Liu’s family to receive 10 million yuan this time!”

Who would believe that such a corrupt army is still capable of fighting?

Since January 2013, when Xi Jinping launched an anti-corruption campaign, more than 510 senior officials at the deputy provincial (ministerial) level and above have been investigated and punished, including more than 160 generals such as Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, deputy secretaries of the Central Military Commission. The CCP does not dare to announce to the public how much money Xu and Guo have corrupted, because if the truth were to be announced, the military would rise up in revolt.

When Jiang Zemin was in power, he called for “making a fortune silently.” His son, Jiang Mianheng, took the lead in becoming a government official and doing business at the same time. As a result, from Jiang Zemin’s family to the grassroots village officials, all practiced a belief that “use the power or lose the power.” How to use the power? Using it to rake in money. With the Jiang family as an example, from the top to the bottom, all those in power at all levels are desperate to rake in money and extort wealth from the people.

In China today, on one hand, a very small number of powerful CCP families are using their power to reap huge profits and live a life of luxury and corruption; on the other hand, 600 million Chinese people are earning only 1,000 yuan a month. Many people have difficulty with school, housing, medical care, pension, and even funerals. It’s hard to live as well as to die. The 72 years of high pressure, deception, and lack of moral principles of the CCP have led to an extraordinary sharpness of various conflicts in Chinese society.

What is the CCP doing in the face of these crises? The CCP uses its “discursive power” to claim that there are people in Taiwan engaged in “Taiwan independence,” that the CCP is going to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the country, and that “reunification with Taiwan” is an expression of patriotism. Therefore, the CCP has time and again used the slogan of “patriotism” to incite “patriotic” sentiments and keep tormenting Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Future Is Not in the Hands of the CCP

In 2020, Taiwan achieved six major accomplishments despite the intense pressure from the CCP on all fronts.

(1) Four democratic polls were successfully held, making it a model of democracy in the world; (2) Highly effective epidemic prevention and control was implemented, making it a model of epidemic prevention in the world; (3) Rapidly developing economy, ranking first among the Four Asian Dragons, also known as Four Asian Tigers; (4) The people live and work in peace and contentment, making it “the happiest region in East Asia”; (5) U.S.-Taiwan relations have improved on all fronts, reaching the best level in more than 40 years; (6) One who upholds justice shall not be alone. More and more countries around the world are supporting Taiwan.

The CCP’s all-around suppression of Taiwan only makes the 23 million Taiwanese people see the evil nature of the CCP more clearly and makes them stay away from it with all their might. The future winner of Taiwan will be the one who wins the support of the Taiwanese people.

Wang Youqun graduated with a Ph.D. in law from the Renmin University of China. He once worked as a copywriter for Wei Jianxing (1931–2015), a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee from 1997 to 2002.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.