Both the Chinese and Jewish nations were forged through thousands of years of hardship. We value history and are accustomed to viewing the world through a historical lens. History also provides an important perspective through which we can rationally and objectively understand the Taiwan question.
History leaves no doubt, and international law leaves no room for dispute: Taiwan has been part of China since ancient times. The earliest Chinese records concerning Taiwan can date back to the Three Kingdoms period in 230 A.D., roughly contemporaneous with the compilation of the Jewish classic Mishnah. Beginning in 1335, successive central governments of China have established administrative institutions in Taiwan. In 1684, the Qing government formally set up Taiwan Prefecture, 92 years earlier than the founding of the United States in 1776. Japan's war of aggression against China forced the Qing government to cede Taiwan, resulting in the island's occupation by foreign powers for half a century. Following the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, Taiwan returned to China's sovereign territory. A series of international legal instruments such as the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, the Sino-Japanese Joint Statement, and the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan, correctly and justly required that Taiwan, which had been stolen by Japan, be restored to China. In 1971, the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 by an overwhelming majority, with Israel voting in favor, making clear that there is but one China in the world and that Taiwan is part of China.
The Taiwan question has remained unresolved for decades due to the interference by external forces and obstruction by the separatists in Taiwan. The Taiwan question is a question left over by the civil war in China. In 1949, the Chinese people overthrew the regime of the Republic of China, and the Kuomintang ruling group fled to Taiwan to confront the newly founded People's Republic of China. During the 1950s, the Taiwan question was manifested primarily in United States' invasion of the Taiwan Strait, seeking to prevent the liberation of Taiwan and supported the Kuomintang authorities in confronting the Chinese mainland. Even so, for decades after 1949, the Taiwan authorities consistently maintained that Taiwan was part of China. However, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) entrenched its pro-"Taiwan independence" stance and colluded with external forces to pursue separatist provocations after it came to power in 2000, which has become the greatest threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Such attempts to reverse the course of history are doomed to fail.
There is only one future for the Taiwan question: The complete reunification of China. Having endured millennia of diaspora, the Jewish people understand deeply the pain of national division. Likewise, the Chinese nation shares a firm conviction that the territory cannot be divided, the state must not fall into chaos, the nation must not be fragmented, and civilization must not be interrupted. In April, Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-wen in Beijing. After 10 years, leaders of the two parties met again and exchanged views. Regardless of changes in the international landscape or the situation across the Taiwan Strait, the historical trend of compatriots on both sides growing closer and moving toward one another will not change. "Peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems" is the basic policy of the Chinese government for resolving the Taiwan question and the best approach for achieving national reunification. We will continue to pursue the prospect of peaceful reunification with the utmost sincerity and greatest efforts, while taking all necessary measures to oppose "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and external interference, and to resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and Israel in 1992, Israel explicitly committed itself to the One-China Policy. On this political foundation, China-Israel relations have withstood the test of history over the past 34 years and maintained steady development, yielding fruitful outcomes in practical cooperation across various fields and bringing tangible benefits to the peoples of both countries. We believe that Israeli friends will gain a deeper historical understanding of the facts and truth concerning the Taiwan question, and will understand and support the Chinese government's efforts to achieve national reunification.
Xiao Junzheng is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of The People's Republic of China to the State of Israel
