Tsai Ing-wen Photo:VCG

The leader of the Taiwan region Tsai Ing-wen delivered her "Double Ten" (October 10) speech on Sunday morning. In her remarks, Tsai used inflammatory language to create an image of Taiwan as "standing on democracy's first line of defense" against authoritarianism. She concealed the fact that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration's attempts to split China have led to constant tensions in the Taiwan Straits. What Tsai has done is a carefully choreographed performance to deceive the international community and Taiwan residents.

Tsai's speech is full of the view of "one country on each side." Although Taiwan people celebrated the 110th anniversary of the founding of "the Republic of China," Tsai emphasized "72 years" without mentioning a word about the history from 1911 to 1949. Even words like "the 1911 Revolution" and Sun Yat-sen's name were not mentioned. And when talking about "the Republic of China," Tsai always added a word behind it: She kept referring to the island as "the Republic of China (Taiwan)." What the DPP is doing is a fundamental betrayal, and this shares the same origins of their rejection of Chinese identity.

This year, Tsai's remarks were even tougher than her previous ones. She threatened to strengthen Taiwan's defense capabilities to ensure that "nobody can force Taiwan to take the path China has laid out for us [Taiwan]." She also stressed the so-called four commitments, including that "the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China should not be subordinate to each other." In the past, Tsai would use the word "China" along with the terms "the mainland" and "the other side of the Straits" when referring to the Chinese mainland. This time, she only used "China," and this shows an unprecedented arrogance.

Tsai's defiance comes from what she claimed is the willingness of the island's "democratic friends," such as the US, Japan and Australia, to "stand up for us [Taiwan]." The DPP authority believes Taiwan's value to the "democratic alliance" is increasing and the US will pay more attention to the island to use it as an anti-China pawn. The DPP authority has seen the constantly growing strength of the mainland and the gradual solidification of conditions for the reunification of Taiwan. Therefore, it now intends to strengthen its posture against the mainland to gain the protection of the US and support of the "democratic alliance." It seeks temporary relief regardless of the consequences, or as a Chinese idiom goes, "quenches a thirst with poison."

What Tsai said today further demonstrates the Tsai administration is narrow-minded and so bigoted that it determines to stick to its course stubbornly. The DPP administration has abandoned its right to strategic adjustment and thrown itself into a political gamble that has only short-term benefits and no chance of winning in the long run. Then it started to use flamboyant political rhetoric to stir up emotions. Apart from deceiving external forces, the DPP authority also needs to create an atmosphere to embolden and anesthetize itself in arrogance.

Taiwan's political future can never be determined by its society. This is because Taiwan is part of China's national sovereignty, and in a country with traditions of great unity going back thousands of years, the answer to the Taiwan question is established and it is even clearer, especially when China's national strength is flourishing. On the global scale, even if the US and its allies want to use the Taiwan question to impede the Chinese mainland, they will have to verbally pledge their support for the "one-China" policy. And no major power will dare openly recognize Taiwan as an independent sovereign state.

The DPP authority does not have the power to overturn the one-China principle in the international community. Much of what they said is nonsense by international standards and is for self-entertainment. In the face of the historical trend of China's eventual reunification, what is happening on the island today is just provisional games. These games are intertwined with various groups of interests, but they are not qualified to modify the historical trend at all.

When Beijing vows that "the historical task of the complete reunification of the motherland must be fulfilled, and will definitely be fulfilled," the whole world believes that the declaration is serious. As China grows stronger, the world is having a premonition that the moment when China will finally be reunified is drawing closer. And it is the DPP authority that perhaps has the strongest premonition. That is why they have been repeatedly asking for promises of protection and support from the US and declaring that they will fight to "the very last day" if attacked. 

The island of Taiwan will finally be reunified with the Chinese mainland. Is it even possible for the DPP authority to achieve "one country, one system" instead of "one country, two systems"? History has no more options. We would like to say, let the DPP authority and secessionist forces in the island enjoy the mouth addiction. After all, their time for being so arrogant will be less and less as time passes by.