China asks India to refrain from military, security cooperation with Taiwan

China on Thursday not-so-subtly asked India to refrain from any military and security cooperation with Taiwan.

Beijing stressed that it was firmly opposed to “all forms of official interaction between the Taiwan authorities and countries having diplomatic relations with China”.

“This is our consistent and clear position,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government, said in Beijing. He was replying to a question on the visit of three former chiefs of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force to Taipei a few weeks back.

Gen Manoj Naravane, Admiral Karambir Singh and Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria, the retired chiefs of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, had on August 8 attended the Ketagalan Forum 2023 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue, which was organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the government of Taiwan in the capital of the country.

A journalist of the Associated Press of Pakistan asked the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government about Beijing’s reaction to the participation of the retired military leaders of India at the event in Taipei.

“We hope the country concerned will abide by the one-China principle, prudently and properly handle Taiwan-related issues, and refrain from having any form of military and security cooperation with Taiwan,” Wang said replying to the query. He, however, avoided directly referring to India.

The One-China policy recognizes only the People's Republic of China, which came into existence in 1949 after the communists defeated the nationalists in the civil war of China. It does not recognise the existence of Taiwan (or the Republic of China), where the nationalists retreated to and based the seat of their government after losing to the communists. India, like most of the other nations, has been adhering to the One-China policy since 1949, recognising only the People's Republic of China. That is why India and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic and consular missions in their respective countries.

The India-Taipei Association, which is headed by a diplomat, functions as New Delhi’s de facto diplomatic and consular mission of India in the capital of Taiwan. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) in New Delhi similarly serves as the de facto diplomatic and consular mission of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (RoC), in the capital of India. A TECC was also set up in Chennai in 2012.

Taiwan is set to expand its quasi-diplomatic presence in India, where many of its technology companies want to set up manufacturing bases in the wake of its escalating tension with China. A new TECC will be set up soon in Mumbai.

China’s April-May 2020 moves to unilaterally change the status quo along its disputed boundary with India in eastern Ladakh and the consequent two-year-long-and-still-unresolved military stand-off between the two sides, however, triggered calls to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi to review its policy on Taiwan to send out a message to the communist country.

The government, however, has not yet initiated any such move.

New Delhi had earlier reaffirmed its One-China policy in all its joint statements with Beijing. But it had not done so for eight years since 2010 — in response to the communist country's policy of issuing “stapled visas to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir, instead of normal visas pasted on passports issued by the Government of India.

The Modi Government, however, had in July 2018 virtually re-asserted its adherence to the “One-China policy” and made Air India change “Taiwan” with “Chinese Taipei” in the list of destinations on its website.

Taiwan had strongly reacted, stating that the move by Air India could be seen as India “succumbing to the unreasonable and absurd pressure from China.