Singapore PM: China's Taiwan Stance 'Awkward' amid Ukraine War

Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in late February highlighted China’s “awkward” stance toward Taiwan, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Wednesday.

“It [Russia’s Ukraine invasion] violates the principles which the Chinese hold very dearly: territorial integrity and sovereignty, and non-interference,” Lee said.

“If you can do that to Ukraine, and if the Donbass (region) can be considered to be enclaves, and maybe republics, what about Taiwan?” he asked.

Lee made the remarks during an appearance at a political forum in Singapore on March 30 moderated by Richard Haass, the president of the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Lee on Wednesday referred to two Russian-backed separatist entities in Eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region known as the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). The Kremlin on February 21 announced plans to recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR. The development served as a springboard for Moscow’s latest military offensive in Ukraine, which launched on February 24.

Taiwan is an independent island nation in East Asia. Beijing claims Taiwan, which is located off China’s southeastern coast, is a Chinese province and should be “reunified” with the “mainland.” The Chinese Communist Party has in recent months increasingly threatened to ensure this “reunification” takes place.

The Chinese Communist Party has insisted its attitude toward Taiwan is not the same as Russia’s stance toward eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region – that Ukraine is a sovereign state and the “people’s republics” are parts of that state, but Taiwan is not a legitimate sovereign entity.

“Taiwan is for sure not Ukraine,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated during a regular press conference on February 23.

China has declined to recognize the DPR and LPR as such because it believes such an assertion would undermine its policy toward Taiwan, a rift from its otherwise supportive attitude towards China.

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping described the colonization of Taiwan as an “aspiration” of the “Chinese nation in a recent video call. Xinhua, China’s official state press agency, published a summary of the call which read, in part:

The true status quo of the Taiwan question and what lies at the heart of one China, Xi pointed out, are as follows: there is but one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing China.

Calling achieving China’s complete reunification an aspiration shared by all sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, Xi said, “We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts.”

“That said, should the separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence’ provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures,” Xi said.

China’s position on Taiwan seems to contradict Beijing’s self-proclaimed support of the concepts of territorial integrity and national sovereignty evident in its so-called “One China” principle. Beijing says it believes in the notions while flagrantly violating them as they apply to other independent nations and their territory, such as in Taiwan and the greater South China Sea region.