Wang Yi and Lavrov Signal More Proactive SCO

My latest two articles showcasing Lavrov’s talk to Russia’s version of the Empire’s Council on Foreign Relations and his presser after the SCO Council of Foreign Minister’s Summit both contain points China’s Foreign Minister Yang Yi also stated at the Summit as reported by Global Times, “China’s top diplomat urges SCO members to maintain strategic autonomy; do not allow external forces to turn region into geopolitical arena.” However, there’s one area where China is trying to retain its patience that is being turned into a “geopolitical arena”—Taiwan which is being used by the Outlaw US Empire in a manner quite similar to that as Ukraine. But before looking at the Global Times editorial related to Taiwan, we’ll examine the areas where Wang Yi and Lavrov coincide and bolster each other:

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday called for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation members to maintain their strategic autonomy, solidarity and cooperation and never allow external forces to turn the region into a geopolitical arena.

Wang made the remarks at a meeting of the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs that was held in Astana, Kazakhstan on Tuesday.

 Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that currently as the international situation is turbulent and changing, a few countries are pursuing hegemony and power, forming small cliques, establishing hidden rules, engaging in interference and suppression, "decoupling and cutting off ties," and even assisting the "three forces" in the region, with the aim of suppressing the strategic autonomy of the "Global South" and blocking the revitalization path of emerging markets and developing countries. 

The "three forces" that Wang mentioned in his remarks refer to terrorism, separatism and religious extremism. 

The more chaotic the world becomes, the more we need to adhere to the "Shanghai Spirit," grasp the correct direction, further strengthen and solidify the SCO, more effectively safeguard common interests, respond to various challenges and defend fairness and justice, said Wang.

Wang called for security cooperation, saying that common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security should be ongoing dynamics in the region.

The SCO countries should, taking the Global Security Initiative as a guide, work with the international community to solve security challenges, eliminate the root causes of conflicts, play a leading role in global security governance and contribute to promoting world peace, he said.

Murat Nurtleu, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcomed the heads of delegations participating in the meeting in Astana.

The meeting began with a moment of silence in remembrance of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, both died in a helicopter accident on Sunday in northern Iran.

SCO's unique role

In March, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at a meeting in Boao, South China's Hainan Province, that all leaders of SCO member states plan to take part in the upcoming summit of the association in Astana in July, Russian News Agency TASS reported.

This year's SCO summit must deal with a weighty agenda, which includes discussions on strengthening counter-terrorism cooperation, institutional reforms and expansion of SCO membership, economic and trade cooperation, and cultural and other aspects, Cui Heng, a scholar from the Shanghai-based China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Cui noted that the meeting of SCO foreign ministers seeks to negotiate the result before the leaders' summit. 

One highlight of this year's summit will be SCO expansion, Han Lu, an associate research fellow at the Department for European-Central Asian Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday. The organization will include more countries and its international influence will be further elevated. This suggests the strong appeal the Shanghai Spirit has, Han said.  

Belarus plans to become a full member of the SCO in July, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said, as the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA reported in March. 

Wang met with Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik on Monday in Kazakhstan. Wang said that the two countries' heads of state have established a profound friendship as well as solid mutual trust, jointly steering China-Belarus relations into a fast lane.

Saudi Arabia's cabinet also approved a decision to join the SCO last year, Reuters reported.

Speaking at a reception in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the SCO Secretariat held in Beijing in February this year, Wang said that changes unseen in a century are unfolding at a faster pace and the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. He pointed out that there is therefore a greater need for carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit and such a cooperation platform as the SCO.

Currently, the SCO is the largest regional multilateral organization composed of non-Western countries and it focuses on political and security cooperation. This is the uniqueness of the SCO, Cui said.

Cui noted that against the backdrop of rising anti-globalization trend and emerging challenges on especially political and non-traditional security, the current global governance framework cannot meet the needs of addressing security threats. This means the value of the SCO is further highlighted in coping with those challenges. 

The SCO, in many aspects, represents a new cooperation model distinct from Western-centric organizations, which seek military expansion and make efforts to form small cliques. The SCO, on the other hand, provides a favorable platform for strengthening South-South cooperation, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

He said the SCO reflects a new multipolar reality and has increasingly exerted influence in the region. It has played an important role in promoting international fairness, justice, and global governance reform.

Solid cooperation 

In their meetings with Wang, the foreign ministers of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan voiced their support for the one-China principle, and expressed their hope of promoting bilateral relations by expanding cooperation.

For his part, Wang told Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev on Monday that China supports the government of Kyrgyzstan in maintaining national independence and pursuing a development path that is in line with its own national conditions.

Wang told Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov that China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Uzbekistan in the fields of counter-terrorism, anti-narcotics and combating transnational crimes, to increase cooperation in countering interference and infiltration, and never allow external forces to disrupt Central Asia.

The core of the SCO is equality and mutual respect. Member countries recognize that regardless of the sizes of the countries, they should treat each other with respect and equality, support each other's development paths, and uphold each other's core interests, Han said. She said this is a true manifestation of mutual trust among SCO member countries.

Officials from SCO members also discussed trade and economic cooperation. For example, Wang said that trade volume, especially trade in agricultural products and new energy vehicles, has grown rapidly between China and Kyrgyzstan, and a number of major projects and new projects have been launched in succession. 

The SCO framework has a depth and breadth of inclusion across a wide range of fields, including diplomacy, national defense, security, economy, trade, culture, education, transportation, technology and agriculture. The development of the SCO in recent years has helped promote cooperation between China and Russia, as well as between China and Central Asian countries, Qian said, noting that cooperation among these countries within the SCO's multilateral framework continues to expand and deepen. [My Emphasis]

The “three forces” are the tools used by the Outlaw US Empire to further its policy of sowing chaos globally along with its control of the international illegal drugs market and other forms of transnational crime, such as human and organ trafficking. I have long advocated for SCO to use its organizational platform against the “three forces” to wage battle against the Empire’s attempts to destabilize the SCO and its members. What that means is acknowledgement of some long-suppressed facts about the Outlaw US Empire’s behavior, which is its leading role in fomenting terrorism and war along with what’s noted above. Yes, of course it will deny all charges, but there’s already massive amounts of evidence in the public domain to gain a guilty verdict. Abetting Genocide is yet another sign of what the Empire does as a matter of course regardless what its citizenry thinks. Here’s one example of what Lavrov said at his post-SCO Summit presser, my emphasis:

The task of developing common approaches to ensuring Eurasian security and cooperation by the states of this continent themselves is urgent. We stressed that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation may well play the role of a catalyst for these processes, involving other partners in the region.

We discussed a number of proposals that are being prepared on behalf of the heads of state. They are devoted to the comprehensive modernisation of the SCO's activities, the improvement of the functioning of its bodies, including giving an additional impetus to the work of the Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). We agreed to create a comprehensive centre for countering modern challenges and threats on the basis of the RATS, within the framework of which mechanisms for information security and combating organised crime will work. In addition, an anti-drug center will be created in Dushanbe. An agreement will be signed between it and the universal center for countering challenges and threats, taking into account the direct and close connection between drug trafficking and the financing of terrorism. We are preparing these decisions for the leaders who will gather in Astana in July….

The Program of Cooperation in Countering Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism for 2025-2027 and the SCO Anti-Drug Strategy for 2024-2029, as well as the program for its implementation, are being prepared for approval by the leaders.

Note that separatism is one of the “three forces” and that Taiwan at the urging of the Outlaw US Empire is pursuing that sort of policy despite the Empire’s saying it follows the One China Principle. Prevarication has long been a tool of the West. With the election of Lai Ching-te with just 40% of the vote, Lai is pursuing a policy for which he has no mandate And the more he’s criticized, the more radical his rhetoric becomes—definitely neocon-type behavior. Global Times issued many scathing editorials at Tsai Ing-wen, but this one so early in his tenure is more severe. It’s hard to see what the SCO can do to help China aside from continuing its solidarity. China would prefer peaceful unification and Taiwan will actually lose very little when that happens. Let’s read just how bad things are:

Taiwan's regional leader Lai Ching-te bears two prominent "labels": a complete "worker for Taiwan independence" and a thorough "peace disruptor." These labels were once again reaffirmed in his so-called inaugural speech on May 20.

The speech was filled with hostility and provocation, lies and deception. In it, Lai took an even more radical and reckless stance on "Taiwan independence," vigorously promoting separatist fallacies such as the so-called "sovereign independence," "both sides of the Taiwan Straits are not subordinate to each other" and "the future of Taiwan will be decided by Taiwan residents." He desperately sought the backing and support of external forces, attempting to internationalize the "Taiwan question," and continued to "seek independence by relying on foreign support and by force." This speech is a thorough confession of "Taiwan independence." As the successor to Tsai Ing-wen and the new leading figure of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority, Lai's actions once again revealed his "independence" nature, with an extremely arrogant attitude and more radical propositions.

Lai's vile behavior is a blatant provocation and destruction of the one-China principle and the peace and stability of the Taiwan Straits. If his plans succeed, it would result in the most dangerous alteration of the status quo in the Taiwan Straits and the most severe damage to its peace, only exacerbating the tension and turmoil in the region and bringing immense suffering to the Taiwan residents.

The "Taiwan independence" separatist forces betray the national interest, go against the will of the people, and severely harm the sovereignty, security and developmental interests of the country. This will not be tolerated or condoned. The mainland will undoubtedly take strong countermeasures to punish Lai's malicious provocations. Here, we need to clarify three points in advance.

First, the mainland's countermeasures will be precisely targeted at "independence." Both sides of the Straits are Chinese and belong to the Chinese nation. No one wishes more than we do to achieve national reunification through peaceful means. However, we must counter and punish the DPP authorities' provocations of seeking "independence" and colluding with external forces. As the saying goes, pursuing "Taiwan independence" will ultimately result in reunification. The more radical Lai and the DPP authorities' provocations become, the earlier they will bring about their demise. Provoke once, and the mainland will counter once; the greater the provocation, the stronger the countermeasure. If they continue to act recklessly, it will only accelerate their self-destruction.

Second, the mainland's countermeasures will not remain just verbal. Our "toolbox" is increasingly well-equipped, our capability for substantial countermeasures is continuously strengthening, and our measures are becoming more precise and effective. Furthermore, these countermeasures will be implemented in the manner and pace that we decide, ensuring that the results of our counteractions will further consolidate and strengthen the mainland's control and initiative over the Taiwan Straits situation.

Third, external forces should not fan the flames. According to the usual "script," external forces and the DPP authorities are likely to bring up "peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits," exaggerating the tension in the region and attempting to blame the mainland for the situation. They will deliberately ignore the fact that it is due to "Taiwan independence" provocations and external interference that the peaceful environment and conditions in the Taiwan Straits have been undermined.

The one-China principle is the anchor for maintaining peace in the Taiwan Straits. The Taiwan question concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and is at the core of China's core interests, leaving no room for compromise. External forces must understand that attempts to use Taiwan to contain China are doomed to fail. Today's China is not the one of 100 years ago, and today's world is not the one of 100 years ago. The determination of the Chinese government and the Chinese people to achieve national reunification is unwavering. For any act of infringement or provocation by anti-China forces, China will resolutely fight back each and every time. The Taiwan question will inevitably be resolved with the rejuvenation of the nation, and China will undoubtedly achieve complete reunification. The attempt to use Taiwan to contain China and to interfere with or delay the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is nothing but delusion.

"Taiwan independence" means war; it is incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Straits and runs counter to the interests of the Taiwan compatriots. From 2008 to 2016, the two sides of the Taiwan Straits walked hand in hand on the path of peaceful development, creating a warm and flourishing atmosphere across the Straits. However, after the DPP came to power and refused to acknowledge the one-China principle, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and cross-Straits relations quickly froze. Over the subsequent eight years, the DPP authorities have engaged in countless provocations aimed at seeking "Taiwan independence."

Regarding Lai Ching-te's "confession" of "Taiwan independence," some individuals on the island have harshly criticized it, stating strongly that Lai's commitment to "independence" is unprecedented. This has made it clear to the world that for the sake of power and personal gain, Lai is willing to undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and push Taiwan into a more dangerous situation. Who is responsible for ruining cross-Straits relations, causing turmoil in the previously calm Taiwan Straits, leading Taiwan into a perilous situation, and bringing great disaster to the residents on the island? The answer is obvious.

No matter what Lai says or how he says it, he cannot change the fact that Taiwan is a part of China, nor can he change the fundamental pattern and development direction of cross-Straits relations. He cannot change the shared aspiration of people on both sides of the Straits to grow closer and more connected, nor can he block the historical trend of national reunification. Our determination to solve the Taiwan question and achieve national reunification is as firm as a rock, our ability to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unbreakable, and our actions against "Taiwan independence" and foreign interference are resolute and powerful. If Lai Ching-te and the DPP authorities persist in their doomed path of "Taiwan independence," they will ultimately crash and burn. [My Emphasis]

What’s so bad about having a status similar to Hong Kong and Macao? In what ways are Taiwanese freer than Mainland Chinese such that they would risk war? Lai is clearly subversive as are his sponsors. And he’s clearly polarizing Taiwan’s polity in a manner similar to a Wahhabi Imam. Will the Outlaw US Empire commit its military to aid Taiwan fight China? Is there a lesson for Taiwan in Ukraine and elsewhere? What is the Outlaw US Empire’s actual interest in fomenting rancor with China? Will Japan and South Korea aid Taiwan and make war on China? In West Asia, Iran sees the Empire’s troops as one root of the problem and will destroy them if attacked; does China see its situation similarly and see the need to destroy the Empire’s troops and bases if it uses proxies to attack China? Some of the above Qs have easy answers while others don’t. Here’s another: Does the Outlaw US Empire understand it’s geoeconomic dependency on China and that it can’t really rectify that fact?—The Trade War only hurts the American economy driving the inflation the Fed can’t solve since it refuses to see what’s driving inflation.

And so the geopolitical situation churns along with no real solution in sight. The likely solution involves conflict of some sort, hopefully only economic, as the world divides into two Blocs. Unfortunately, the Outlaw US Empire still thinks it has an excellent military and will probably try to use it which will only serve to bring modern war to its shores for which it has no defenses.

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