ONE China policy, a policy that recognises Taiwan as an integral part of China is almost universally accepted, including by the US. Not only the governments, but most of the political parties in the world also accept this principle. Hence, irrespective of who wins or loses in elections in their respective countries, the foreign policies of the governments reflect this acceptance to One China policy. In India too, all the major political forces have recognised the One China policy. The CPI(M) is a part of this national consensus and stands committed to the One China policy, which recognises Taiwan as a part of China.

The universal consensus on One China policy can be understood from the fact that to date, 181 countries, including the US have established diplomatic relations with People’s Republic of China. It is on the basis of this recognition that PRC is given a place in the UN – one of the five permanent members in the Security Council. The joint communiqué issued by the US and China after they had established diplomatic relations in 1978 clearly states as much: “The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. The United States of America recognises the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China”. Both the countries had also agreed that ‘within this context’, the “people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan”. This is an important sentence, as it speaks about the people of the US maintaining cultural, commercial and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan. Nowhere does it talk about the government of US involving in the internal affairs of Taiwan.

In violation of these agreements, the US is regularly supplying modern arms and ammunition to Taiwan. It is promoting and encouraging divisive forces in the island to challenge the unification process with the mainland. It is an open secret that the US is practically against the unification of Taiwan and China, as it considers China as an adversary. Taiwan occupies a key part in the Indo-Pacific strategy of the US intended to contain and isolate China. It is for this purpose that US regularly sends its naval frigates into the Taiwan straits and carries out military exercises with Taiwan. All these measures are intended to provoke China and destabilise the entire Asia-Pacific region. It is in this background that Nancy Pelosi, a top-ranking Democrat and Speaker of the US Congress visited the island. Other than inciting tensions, there is no other agenda for her visit.

The recent actions of the US administration targeting China intend to disrupt the developing people-to-people relations between Chinese mainland and Taiwan. It is with the initiative of the Communist Party of China that had led the victorious revolution in PRC in 1949 that efforts to reunify the entire country divided by various colonial forces had started. The CPC formulated an innovative concept of ‘one country, two systems’ and worked for the reunification of Hong Kong and Macau. Taiwan is the other major part that is to be reunified.

The efforts of CPC and the Chinese government contributed to the development of people-to-people relations, increased trade and cultural ties. In 1987 less than 50,000 visits were made between the two sides; by 2019 this number rose to about 9 million. The volume of trade between China and Taiwan, which was only US$46 million in 1978, rose to US$328.34 billion in 2021, up by a factor of more than 7,000. Mainland China has been Taiwan's largest export market for the last 21 years and also the largest destination for Taiwan's off-island investment. By the end of 2021 Taiwan businesses had invested in almost 124,000 projects on the mainland, to a total value of US$71.34 billion. All these facts show the strengthening of bonds between the mainland and island. The US is afraid of these bonds, which would lead to reunification. A China reunited with Taiwan means further strengthening of its economic power, signalling its rise as a world super-power. That China is emerging as a super-power, when the entire capitalist world is in crisis and the very survival of capitalism as a social system is challenged, is something imperialist US is unable to digest.

For this reason, it is trying to rally its allies to contain and isolate China. It had formed various military alliances and groups like the AUKUS and Quad to achieve this purpose. The recently concluded NATO summit mentions China as a threat. The US had tried to intervene in the internal affairs of China by promoting terrorist and separatist activities in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Hong Kong and is now trying to do the same in Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit is intended mainly to serve this purpose.

The US had already lit the fire in Ukraine and the entire world is bearing the brunt of its acts with increased prices of energy, scarcity of food and rising inflation. Unconcerned about the plight of the people of the world, the US is now trying to light another flame in Taiwan. This is a very dangerous game that would not only threaten peace and stability of the world, but would disrupt world trade and supply chains. In order to stamp its hegemony over the world, the US is putting the entire humanity at a risk. This should not be allowed and needs to be resisted.