{"id":749,"date":"2026-05-27T03:32:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asianewscast.com\/2026\/05\/27\/china-wants-to-speak-for-taiwan-the-world-should-hear-taiwan-directly\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T03:32:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:32:53","slug":"china-wants-to-speak-for-taiwan-the-world-should-hear-taiwan-directly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asianewscast.com\/?p=749","title":{"rendered":"China Wants to Speak for Taiwan. The World Should Hear Taiwan Directly."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"China<\/div>
Credit: Office of the President, ROC (Taiwan)\/ Liu Shu-fu<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Within the span of four weeks, two planes told the story of Taiwan\u2019s presence and absence in the world. One carried U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing, where China\u2019s leader Xi Jinping had every opportunity to press his case about Taiwan. The other was nearly prevented from reaching its destination: Taiwan\u2019s president, Lai Ching-te, tried to fly to Eswatini, Taiwan\u2019s only diplomatic ally in Africa, <\/span>only to see three countries revoke overflight permission for his plane<\/span><\/a>. Lai had to postpone his trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

China is pressuring Taiwan by controlling access to and language about Taiwan \u2013 including by pressing foreign leaders to describe Taiwan in Beijing\u2019s terms. The danger is that the world may misread Taiwan and misunderstand who is preserving peace and who is threatening it. That distorted framing was evident in <\/span>Trump\u2019s remarks<\/span><\/a> following his trip to China. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said that Taiwan has \u201csomebody there now that wants to go independent,\u201d and implied that U.S. support encourages Taiwan to provoke Beijing. That is Beijing\u2019s familiar narrative: Taiwan is seeking independence, Taiwan is provoking China, and Taiwan is therefore to blame for regional instability.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet as Trump was saying this, the People\u2019s Liberation Army was continuing to send ships and aircraft around Taiwan, part of a grinding campaign that has become a near-daily pressure on Taiwan. In Taiwan, the goal is very clear: Taiwanese want peace, not provocation, and they want to preserve their democratic way of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

To keep Taiwan\u2019s voice from being heard, China is blocking Taiwan\u2019s elected leaders from reaching out to other countries. Lai was scheduled to visit Eswatini in late April. At the last minute, however, three neighboring African countries \u2014 Mauritius, Seychelles, and Madagascar \u2013denied his plane access to their airspace, forcing him to postpone the trip. China praised the three countries. It was a new kind of squeeze on Taiwan\u2019s international engagement \u2013 preventing Taiwan\u2019s leader from visiting Taiwan\u2019s own ally.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taiwan, however, was not deterred. Days later, <\/span>Lai reached Eswatini anyway<\/span><\/a>, by an unusual route and with Eswatini\u2019s assistance \u2013 a creative act of diplomatic improvisation. Taiwanese followed his difficult journey as a reminder of how small China wants our world to become.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same logic of control prevailed this week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The issue should have been straightforward: whether Taiwan\u2019s experts and officials may share what they know about public health without Beijing\u2019s permission. But Taiwan was again kept out of the key forum of global health governance, despite what its public health experts and officials could contribute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before that, in late April, China <\/span>forced the cancelation of a global human rights gathering<\/span><\/a> because several Taiwanese civil society organizations were set to take part.<\/span><\/p>\n

Time and again, China forces its claim over Taiwan into international conversations, excludes Taiwan from international organizations, and denies Taiwanese leaders, officials, and even ordinary citizens access to international venues.<\/span><\/p>\n

China wants the world to hear only one version of Taiwan\u2019s story: Beijing\u2019s. And much of the world is listening to this version. When world leaders repeat Beijing\u2019s language, they narrow the space in which Taiwan can safely exist. They make it easier to treat Taiwan as a provocation and the Taiwanese people\u2019s desire to preserve their democracy as a threat to peace. But peace cannot be built on a narrative that blames the threatened for the threat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump has made an unusual suggestion in recent interviews<\/span><\/a>: that he would speak with Taiwan\u2019s leader. <\/span>Taiwan has welcomed the possibility of a call<\/span><\/a>, but such a conversation would certainly draw Beijing\u2019s opposition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Taiwan has a message to deliver, one grounded in reality. Asked what he would say if he spoke directly with the American president, <\/span>Lai said<\/span><\/a> he would first convey the voice of Taiwanese society: Taiwan seeks to maintain the status quo and protect peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.<\/span><\/p>\n

For many people in Taiwan, the \u201cstatus quo\u201d means the political reality of governing themselves without China\u2019s permission: electing their leaders, criticizing their government, debating their future, and living their democratic life. Accepting Beijing\u2019s narrative would help China deny this reality and encourage aggression.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is why a simple discipline matters: Before taking Beijing\u2019s claims about Taiwan at face value, the international community should hear from Taiwan directly \u2013 from its leaders and its people. Beijing makes that difficult. But difficulty is not a reason to let China speak for Taiwan.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit: Office of the President, ROC (Taiwan)\/ Liu Shu-fu Within the span of four weeks, two planes told the story of Taiwan\u2019s presence and absence in the world. One carried U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing, where China\u2019s leader Xi Jinping had every opportunity to press his case about Taiwan. The other was nearly prevented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChina Wants to Speak for Taiwan. 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