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By marginalizing China and inviting Taiwan to its virtual summit of democracies on the 9th, ”articulated with the recognition of“ a single China. “

The truth is that the trend of strategic rapprochement between Washington and Taipei has clearly been at work since at least 2018, during D. Trump’s tenure. It was not corrected by Joe Biden. Read: The New Poorly Marked Waters of the Taiwan Issue.

The event, organized by the White House, surpassed the recall of more than a hundred democratic countries and many philanthropic NGOs, which included some heads of private companies.

Through speeches by Joe Biden and Antony Blinken, Washington has come to the fore in an existential struggle for democracy against the autocrats and has once again raised the strategic rivalry between China and the US to the level of a confrontation between two competing political systems.

The initiative implemented the inaugural promise made in Biden’s foreign policy speech last February to restore the United States to its position as the “champion” of democracies in the face of “authoritarian forces led by China and Russia”. Logically, neither Beijing nor Moscow had been invited.

Uzra Zeya, of Indian descent, Undersecretary of State for Security, Democracy and Human Rights, delivered warnings from the American president seeing the world at a crucial point in the breach of democratic ideals across the planet, stating, “In virtually every region of world democracy the retreat “.

The statements overlapped with Tsai Ing-wen’s repeated calls for the vigilance of the world’s democracies, aimed at getting Taiwan out of face-to-face encounter with Beijing in the Strait (read: Taiwan: Call to Save the Conscience of Democracies, Tsai tries to Escape encounter with Beijing). Its first effect was to stir up the anger of the Chinese.

Strong Chinese response defending their “democratic model”.

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Unsurprisingly, the party’s response was very offensive. First, the spokesman for the Foreign Office accused Washington of hiding its strategic goals behind the democracy project, to hinder reunification in the strait and to divide the world in its own interest.

For the entire month of November leading up to the summit, Taiwanese Affairs Bureau spokesman Zhu Fenglian, who strongly opposed Washington-Taipei interactions, reiterated that Taiwan’s invitation was “a mistake”. »(…)« This position is clear and conclusive. We urge the United States to adhere to the “one China” principle and the three common communiques.

A week before the summit, the more belligerent counterattack directly challenged the “champion of democracies” position that Washington is adorned with. A spokesman for the MAE spoke up and questioned American democracy, whose “disastrous state” did not advocate legitimizing Washington’s role as a role model.

Then came the assertion of the relevance of the Chinese political system, strict numerical control that was often brutal enough to rule not only a country as large and populous as China, but also as a model for the rest of the world.

Aside from China, Russia, like many others, stayed away from the summit [1], The Hungary case, outlawed by Brussels and Washington, has not escaped the notice of Beijing, which has close ties to Prime Minister Victor Orban. Foreign Minister Wang Yi took advantage of intra-European tensions between Budapest and Brussels and asked him to criticize the exclusion of some.

White Papers on Chinese Democracy and the Flaws of the American Model.

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Both affirm the diversity of democratic models, taking into account the respective cultural and political peculiarities. Conveniently on December 4th, less than a week before the summit, Beijing published a “White Paper” 55 pages and explains the virtues of his understanding of democracy.

The rationale of the document, which takes up the discourse on the effectiveness of the apparatus that has already been seen in connection with the fight against the pandemic, explains the Chinese-style democracy, which has made enormous human and material advances possible over forty years, works better than that American model. The next day, a party report completed the picture listing the failures of democracy in America.

Ironically, the list of vices in the American system has been heavily adopted by critical media outlets like the WSJ or Washington, which have been banned by censorship even in China.

Finally, Nicaragua strengthened the Chinese position in the stalemate around Taiwan and announced on December 12, 48 hours after the summit, its decision to switch its diplomacy to recognize the People’s Republic. The decision will reduce the number of countries with ties to Taipei to 14 (Vatican, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Haiti, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia & St. Vincent, Grenadines, Nauru Islands , Marshall, Palau, Tuvalu and Eswatini in Africa.)

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