US and Canadian warships pass through the Taiwan Strait, China softens its rhetoric toward Taiwan

• China says it is willing to strive for peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan.
• Comments follow weeks of military maneuvers and war games by Beijing near the self-ruling island.
• China has proposed a “one country, two systems” model for Taiwan, similar to that for Hong Kong.

A Chinese government spokesperson said on Wednesday that China is willing to go to any length to achieve peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan, following weeks of military manoeuvres and war games by Beijing near the self-ruling island.

The remarks came a day after US and Canadian warships transited the Taiwan Strait together for the second time in less than a year.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a news conference in Beijing ahead of next month’s once-every-five-years Communist Party congress that China was willing to go to any length to achieve peaceful “reunification” with the island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory.

China has proposed a “one country, two systems” model for Taiwan, similar to the formula used to return Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997.

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Ma stated that Taiwan could have a “social system distinct from the mainland” that ensured its way of life, including religious freedoms, was respected, but only “under the condition of ensuring national sovereignty, security, and development interests.”

According to opinion polls, all mainstream Taiwanese political parties have rejected that proposal, and it has almost no public support, especially after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 following the city’s rocked by sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China protests.

China has also never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and in 2005 passed legislation authorising military action against Taiwan if it secedes or appears to be about to secede.

Taiwan’s government claims that its sovereignty claims are null and void because the island has never been ruled by the People’s Republic of China.

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