In response to the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement criticizing the US for violating its promised foreign policy, and even asked the executive branch to have the responsibility to prevent members from visiting Taiwan. The US has repeatedly reiterated that under the principle of separation of powers, Pelosi will The visit to Taiwan “was a decision made by her own consideration”.
Pelosi’s executive plane just landed at Taipei Songshan Airport. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately issued a statement condemning it on its official website, expressing strong protest with “five seriousness” and criticizing Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a violation of the “one China principle” and The three Sino-US “Joint Communiques” stipulate that the political foundation of Sino-US relations is undermined and China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are violated. In addition, the statement also said that the US executive branch should prevent the speaker from visiting Taiwan.
“As an integral part of the U.S. government, the U.S. Congress should strictly abide by the one-China policy of the U.S. government and refrain from any official exchanges with Taiwan. Block,” the statement read.
China accuses U.S. of using separation of powers as a shield
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also spoke of the same voice, criticizing the U.S. government’s executive, legislative, and judicial organs at a regular press conference on the afternoon of the 2nd that they should follow the one-China principle, “The U.S. Congress, as an integral part of the U.S. government, should strictly Abide by the foreign policy recognized and committed by the U.S. government. The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, as the No. 3 figure in the U.S. government, took a U.S. military plane to ‘visit’ the Taiwan region, which is by no means an unofficial act.”
The day before Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Wang Yingjin, director of the Center for Cross-Strait Relations at Renmin University of China, criticized the United States for using the separation of powers as a shield on the Chinese state media Global Times, saying that the Biden administration responded to Pelosi with “no right to interfere” It is “extremely irresponsible” to visit Taiwan from the west.
However, Li Kexin, co-editor of the US Taiwan Observatory who has been concerned about US-Taiwan relations for a long time, stressed in an interview with this station that the US administration and Congress are equal institutions, with their own policy positions and priorities, and cannot command each other.
“Beijing or the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs pressures Biden and asks Biden to pressure Pelosi. In fact, this is useless, because the US executive branch and the legislative branch are two parallel units, and in many US legislations , Even Biden has to work hard to convince his own party members to pass the legislation. It is not the direction of the party, you can ask the people below to go in the same direction.”
White House: Beijing understands the separation of powers in the United States
In fact, the US government has repeatedly emphasized the spirit of separation of powers and reiterated that Congress is an equal institution independent of the executive system. US Secretary of State Blinken said on August 1 that the Speaker of the House of Representatives will decide whether to visit Taiwan and that Congress is an independent and equal branch of government. The White House National Security Council spokesman Kirby also said at a press conference on the 1st that in last week’s call between the leaders of the United States and China, US President Biden communicated with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. “Make it clear,” “Congress is an independent government department, and Speaker Pelosi makes her own decisions.”
Kirby said he believed Beijing was “well aware” of the separation of powers in the United States.
The Chinese embassy in the United States began to attach importance to the work of the US Congress. It can be traced back to 1995, after the successful visit of Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to the United States. China learned from Taiwan’s representative office in the United States and established a congressional affairs-related group to actively lobby. Check the official website of the Chinese embassy in the United States. Among them, the “Congress and Local Affairs Office” is responsible for communicating with Congress and local governments, and its responsibilities are separated from the window dedicated to communicating with the U.S. government.
Give China a Lesson in Democracy
Ye Yaoyuan, head of the Department of International Studies and Contemporary Linguistics at the University of St. Thomas, said that the United States is committed to the spirit of separation of powers, but the traditional Confucian cultural circle has the myth that “authorities can control everything”. Eight poles can’t hit.
“They have nothing to do with the organizational system, but it seems that they can change the behavior of administrative agencies through personal influence or positional influence. This is what China is talking about, but this is not good in theory. The United States has strongly wanted to It is necessary to avoid deliberately influencing the actions of various departments through your own authority or interpersonal relationships.” Ye Yaoyuan said, “Biden and Pelosi can communicate and coordinate, but it does not mean who wants to listen to whom, but China will feel that what Xi Jinping said , who wouldn’t listen?”
Even so, the Chinese Foreign Ministry still spoke positively about Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi not only criticized the U.S. for treachery on the Taiwan issue and “being an enemy of the 1.4 billion Chinese people will never end well”. There was no plan to meet with Blinken, which was interpreted by the outside world as expressing dissatisfaction with Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Reporter: Chen Pinjie Editor in charge: Zheng Chongsheng Web editor: Hong Wei