China sends jets and bombers near Taiwan as Beijing opposes island’s trade deal bid
China has voiced opposition to Taiwan
joining a major trans-Pacific trade deal as it flew 24 planes – including two
nuclear-capable bombers – into the self-ruled island’s air defence zone, the
biggest incursion in weeks, Taiwanese officials said.
Last week Beijing submitted its own
application to become a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement
for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Taiwan has lobbied for years to join and
announced on Thursday that it had officially applied to be part of the CPTPP,
which was signed by 11 Asia-Pacific countries in 2018 and is the region’s
biggest free-trade pact, accounting for around 13.5% of the global economy.
Taiwan can’t be left out in the world and
has to integrate into the regional economy,” cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng
said. But China, which claims self-ruled democratic Taiwan as its own
territory, insisted Taipei should not be allowed in.
On the same day, Taiwanese officials said
24 Chinese planes – including 18 fighter jets and two nuclear-capable bombers –
crossed into the island’s air defence identification zone.
We firmly oppose any country having
official exchanges with Taiwan and firmly oppose the Taiwan region’s accession
to any official treaties or organisations,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian said.
Taiwan responded by saying China had no
right to decide who can join the trade pact given it is not yet a member.
The Chinese government, with its deeds of
just wanting to bully Taiwan in the international community, is the culprit for
heightened cross-strait hostilities,” Taipei’s foreign ministry said in a
statement.
China’s authoritarian leaders have
threatened to one day seize Taiwan, by force if necessary.
They have ramped up economic, military and
diplomatic pressure on the island since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen
who views Taiwan as a sovereign nation.
China often sends military aircraft into
Taiwan’s air defence zone to display displeasure but Thursday’s incursion was
the biggest since 15 June.
Negotiations for the sweeping trade deal
were initially led by the United States as a way to increase its influence in
the Asia-Pacific region. It was originally designed to keep China, which has
its own regional trade deal, locked out.
But in 2017 the then US president Donald
Trump, who disdained multilateral agreements, pulled out of the deal.
The CPTPP is the successor to those
negotiations and currently includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan,
Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.
Those hoping to join must have the
unanimous support of all the pact’s member countries, something both China and
Taiwan may struggle to obtain.
China’s application comes at a time when
Beijing is feuding with a host of western nations, especially Australia, on
which it has placed trade restrictions. Australia this week said China must end
a freeze on contact with senior Australian politicians if it hopes to sign up.
Meanwhile smaller countries within the
CPTPP are unlikely to want to risk incurring Beijing’s wrath by agreeing to let
Taiwan join. But China’s growing threats towards Taipei have generated
international sympathy for the island among western powers.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, chair of the
US-Taiwan Business Council, said “China’s submission should have no bearing on
Taiwan’s application”.
He added that Taipei’s application “should
be considered by the CPTPP members on its own economic merits and free of all
Chinese political and military intimidation or coercion”.
The application has already been received
favourably by Tokyo. “Japan welcomes Taiwan’s application to join the
Trans-Pacific Partnership,” Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in
New York.
