Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

There is a trend of strengthening collusion between the US and "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces before the 2024 Taiwan election. Pro-independence politicians on the island only think about how to seek votes and how to seek support from the US. They see the empty promises issued by the US as a "life-saving straw" and blindly believe in US' "lip service," which will only lead to a tragic outcome of being abandoned.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated on Tuesday that the US will soon provide significant additional security assistance to Taiwan island through presidential drawdown authority (PDA), which is a type of authority that expedites security assistance and has been used to send arms to Ukraine.

Austin reportedly wants to meet Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June, but then he announced that the US will provide Taiwan with additional significant security assistance. The move confirms that it has become a standard pattern for the US to make gestures toward seeking dialogue while at the same time creating tension between China and the US.

The various actions taken by the US now indicate that it is not seeking to improve bilateral relations, but rather to intensify the confrontation without getting out of hand. We need to be aware that many of the US' statements concerning China cannot conceal the essence of its policy toward China, which is to use various issues to restrain China and achieve the goal of weakening China's domestic and international development environment, an international observer based in Beijing noted.

Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, expressed a similar view that the US doesn't really want to repair bilateral relations. The purpose of Washington's seeking dialogue is to rationalize and legitimize its suppression of China. This undoubtedly makes it difficult for people to have an optimistic attitude toward China-US relations, and China should be prepared to respond to the US' escalating provocations at any time.

"Since Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August last year, which caused a qualitative escalation of the situation in the Taiwan Straits, the US has initiated a series of continuous provocations, including Tsai Ing-wen's 'transit' trip through the US. Now, without any reason, the US is planning to use the PDA to provide so-called security assistance to Taiwan. This is a very symbolic policy tool, and the meaning of provocation is very strong," said Lü. 

The Taiwan question and the Ukraine crisis are two completely different issues, but the US is now using the mechanism of military aid to Ukraine to assist Taiwan island, which is an extremely wrong and dangerous move. The US has caused turmoil in the Middle East by waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and created the Ukraine crisis in Europe. Now, it wants to create conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region by manipulating the Taiwan question. All countries in the region should be vigilant.

Recently, by frequently playing the Taiwan card, on the one hand, Washington aims to create an atmosphere of exceptional tension in the Taiwan Straits in the international community, so as to quickly mobilize its allies in the Asia-Pacific and Europe to compete with China and create a confrontation in the region. 

On the other hand, there is a strengthening of the collusion between the US and "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces before the Taiwan election. The US is trying to lead the future direction of the political ecology in Taiwan island to ensure that Taiwan's future politics is under the baton of the US.

Lü pointed out that the US hopes that the pro-independence politicians of the DPP will continue to be in power in Taiwan, making it easier for Washington to continue to use Taiwan as a pawn. Therefore, Washington will strengthen its support for such politicians. Now, they are using means such as PDA to encourage the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces.

It is not difficult to see from the DPP's low approval rating that more and more people in Taiwan know that relying on the US to seek "Taiwan independence" is a road that cannot be taken. The US intends to use the Taiwan island as a pawn to contain the mainland, while ignoring the safety of local residents, which the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces are well aware of. However, there is such an evil force on the island that is determined to lead people in Taiwan to a dead end.

Washington's goal is to keep Taiwan island on the US chariot as a "convenient tool" in the competition between the US and China. However, the "Taiwan independence" politicians who lack moral conscience and responsibility toward the people on the island never consider the well-being of the people and the overall stability of the region.