Biden invites Taiwan to a democracy summit - and plays with "fire" for China

US President Biden has invited Taiwan to its long-planned summit of democratic states.

China and Russia, on the other hand, have to stay outside.

Beijing and Moscow are not amused.

Washington DC - Amid tense relations with China, the US government has invited democratically ruled Taiwan to its online Summit of Democracies.

A list released Tuesday by the US State Department included more than 100 participating countries.

China and Russia were not among them.

For Taiwan, Digital Minister Audrey Tang and the US diplomatic envoy, Hsiao Bi-khim, would attend the talks on December 9th and 10th, the State Department in Taipei officially announced.

Unsurprisingly, China reacted indignantly.

Beijing warned the US on Wednesday (November 24th, 2021) against “playing with fire” and provoking confrontations.

A spokesman for the Beijing Foreign Ministry called for the White House to adhere to the "one China principle".

The invitation to Taiwan is strictly rejected, it said.

Boom for Taiwan: More participation in international work

Inviting Taiwan to a conference among sovereign states is a further step towards integrating the island more strongly into the international community, even against China's will.

The EU Parliament is campaigning for relations with Taipei to be upgraded and for a trade agreement with the island.

In addition, at the end of October, the USA surprisingly offered Taiwan the prospect of “significant” cooperation at the UN and other international forums.

The US State Department explicitly named the World Health Organization WHO and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Taiwan's participation in this way would be a real taboo if it found a majority at the UN, despite opposition from Beijing.

But at the moment a lot seems possible: Taipei's efforts to participate have never seen as much momentum as they are at the moment, despite ongoing threats from Beijing. Only recently did the island republic open an official "Taiwan representation" in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. China then downgraded diplomatic relations to the so-called chargé d'affaires level. This means that only lower-ranking diplomats care about Lithuania. China withdrew its ambassador back in July when Lithuania gave Taiwan permission to operate a representation in Vilnius under its own name. In addition, China stopped rail freight traffic to Lithuania at that time - and from then on no longer granted the country import permits for food.

Beijing has viewed Taiwan as a breakaway province since the end of the civil war in 1949.

Almost all countries in the world maintain, true to the "one China principle", only unofficial relations with Taiwan.

In Germany, for example, there is only one “Taipei representation” without mentioning the country's name in the official name.

It remains to be seen how the new traffic light coalition will deal with the Taiwan question.

Above all, the Greens and FDP are more critical of China than the previous grand coalition under Angela Merkel.

Joe Biden invites you to the summit of democracies against authoritarian tendencies in the world

Joe Biden announced the Summit of Democracies in August. The main topics will therefore be the defense against authoritarianism, the fight against corruption and the promotion of respect for human rights. Another summit is scheduled to take place a year later to present the progress made in fulfilling the commitments.

Like China, Russia is not invited to Biden's summit. The Kremlin has therefore accused the US government of wanting to "split" the world community. "The US prefers to create new dividing lines and to subdivide the countries into what they think is good and what they think is bad," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday. Washington is trying to "privatize" the concept of democracy, Peskow said. "More and more countries prefer to decide for themselves how they want to live without looking back at anyone."

Russia and China have been intensifying their cooperation for some time.

This also applies to the Olympics.

While the USA and Great Britain are currently considering a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games in Beijing in February 2022 - which means not sending any members of the government - Russian President Vladimir Putin demonstratively accepted an invitation to Beijing this week.