Taiwan Warns ‘Chinese Totalitarianism’ Poses ‘Unprecedented Threat’ as Xi Consolidates Power

Taipei — The government here holds out hope that the regime in Beijing can be convinced to act rationally to avert conflict. But with the Chinese Communist Party heading into a historic political gathering next month, where Xi Jinping is expected to consolidate power, one of Taiwan’s top officials is sounding the alarm about Chinese expansionism.

Ultimately, the official said this morning, Beijing’s expansionist — even totalitarian — tendencies spell trouble for free nations.

Xi has steered the Party toward a nationalism resembling that of 19th-century European powers — and their attendant expansionism, said Chiu Chui-cheng, a deputy minister in Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council. This, he added, can be seen in Beijing’s militarization in the South China Sea, its assault on Hong Kong’s democracy, and the brutal campaign in Xinjiang.

“China’s totalitarianism now is posing unprecedented threats to the free and democratic countries of the world,” Chiu said, addressing a group of foreign journalists who traveled to Taipei on a trip sponsored by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He made the comment responding to National Review’s question about how he thinks the Party Congress will affect Beijing’s calculus regarding its designs on Taiwan.

In recent years, China has suspended high-level dialogues with Taiwan that had previously allowed the two countries to achieve a productive relationship amid geopolitical tensions. Chiu told the group that while his government hopes that the two sides can “sit down and talk as soon as possible,” Beijing demanded that Taiwan accept unification on its terms — an obvious non-starter.

Last week, Chinese state media published a list of the over 2,000 attendees invited to the gathering, strongly indicating that Xi will tighten his grip on power, dispelling recent social-media rumors which claimed that a coup had ousted the Chinese leader.

His anticipated ascension to a third term in power — an unmatched status that no Party leader has enjoyed for decades — during the Party Congress is expected to set in motion a sea change in how the Party, whose belligerent stances are reaching new heights, engages with the rest of the world. It is likely to set China on a collision path with Taiwan, in addition to the island’s most powerful international partner: the United States.

Recently, the Biden administration has made a number of noteworthy announcements about its stance toward China’s presumed intentions to absorb Taiwan. President Biden said during an interview earlier this month that the U.S. would send service members to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, while Vice President Kamala Harris warned, during a speech in Japan today, of Beijing’s “disturbing” actions.

For its part, China has pledged an ominous future for those who stand in the way of the Party’s agenda. Speaking from the U.N. rostrum last week, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said that those who attempt to block the Party’s efforts to take Taiwan will be “crushed by the wheels of history.”

Leading up to the Congress, Beijing will refrain from provocations internationally and actions that cause instability at home, Chiu explained. But he said Xi has centralized power in himself so thoroughly over the past ten years that, “They’re willing to take risks when making decisions.”

This dynamic “created threats in Southeast Asia, the increasing military actions from China, and China is posing threats against Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan,” he said. “These are posing threats not only to Taiwan but also to the world.”

In that sense, the National Congress, which is scheduled to begin on October 16 and last about a week, will have an outsized impact on Taiwan’s future. Xi previously said that “reunification” with Taiwan — which has never been ruled by the CCP — “must be fulfilled,” while Chinese diplomats across the world have spoken ominously in recent months about carrying out a “reeducation” of the Taiwanese population.

And while a spate of Chinese military drills that commenced under the pretext of an angry response to House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August visit to the island have since died down, Beijing is likely to ratchet up the fire and fury in the immediate aftermath of the Party gathering as a distraction from its domestic ills.

China’s economic troubles and draconian lockdowns stemming from Beijing’s failure to contain the Covid virus could make the Party “want to use external aggression to kind of divert domestic public tension,” said Christina Chen of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a government-funded think tank.

Briefing journalists on Monday, she explained that Xi has always viewed reunifying Taiwan as a legacy item.

“So if he does become reelected, it is very likely he will try to fulfill this goal of reunification. We always have to bear this in mind, that the invasion is very likely,” she said. “The likelihood has gone up drastically over the recent time.”

One of Taiwan’s core strengths might serve to endanger it, as the country’s thriving democracy may pose precisely the sort of ideological threat that the Party just cannot accept.

While Beijing can “use nationalism to block Western democracy,” Taiwan’s example is different, Chiu said. “Taiwan’s democracy can influence Chinese people and encourage them to seek better life, freedom, and democracy. Therefore Taiwan’s democracy is irreplaceable in the international community.”

National Review is reporting from Taiwan on a trip organized and sponsored by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.