Brussels, May 16 China’s Taiwan policy reflects concerns over losing control of the historical narrative, domestic comparison, diplomatic influence and strategic containment. Taiwan represents a distinct governance model that contrasts with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – "a living rebuttal to the idea that Chinese identity requires authoritarian rule," a report mentioned this week.
Writing for the European Times, Khedroob Thondup, the nephew of the Dalai Lama, said that Beijing cannot treat Taiwan simply as a territorial dispute, arguing that it poses an “existential ideological challenge” to the CCP.
“China’s obsession with Taiwan is not merely about sovereignty. It is about regime survival. The Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan’s independence, and even the confident assertion of Taiwanese autonomy, as a direct threat to its legitimacy at home and to its ambitions abroad. Beijing insists that Taiwan has always been part of China, invoking the 'One China' principle as historical truth. Yet this claim is far more contested than Beijing admits,” Thondup stated.
He highlighted that Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Following World War II, Japan renounced all rights, title and claims to Taiwan and the Pescadores under the San Francisco Peace Treaty, but the treaty did not explicitly assign sovereignty to China.
“Taiwan’s post-war status therefore remains politically and legally disputed, whatever Beijing may claim. This ambiguity matters because Taiwan’s democratic identity exposes the fragility of the CCP’s historical narrative. Beijing presents itself as the sole inheritor of Chinese sovereignty and civilisation. Taiwan demonstrates something far more dangerous to that narrative: that a Chinese-speaking society can be democratic, pluralist, prosperous and sovereign in practice without the Communist Party,” Thondup mentioned.
“Xi Jinping has tied his leadership to the promise of ‘national rejuvenation', with reunification placed at the centre of that project. Failure to control Taiwan would puncture the nationalist mythology on which the CCP increasingly depends. This explains Beijing’s disproportionate response to symbolic gestures, from foreign parliamentary visits to meetings with Taiwan’s president. What appears to the outside world as protocol is treated by Beijing as a challenge to regime credibility,” he further stated.
According to the report, each instance of international engagement with Taiwan, however limited, erodes Beijing’s diplomatic position. It reinforces Taiwan’s de facto independence and underscores that the island is not merely an “internal Chinese administrative question" but a “self-governing democracy” of over 23 million people.
The report noted that Taiwan is key to the military balance in the Indo-Pacific—anchoring the first island chain—the strategic arc - stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines.
“If Taiwan remains outside Beijing’s control and deepens its security coordination with the United States, Japan and other regional partners, China’s naval expansion into the wider Pacific remains constrained. For Beijing, Taiwan is therefore not only a symbol. It is a strategic barrier,” it added.
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