Trump should tell Xi to give up obsession with Taiwan

OPINION:

A lot will be on the table when President Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, including the Iran war, trade, rare-earth minerals and advances in artificial intelligence.

As important as any of this is the fate of the island nation 100 miles off China’s coast: the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Taiwan is a thriving democracy, which Freedom House rates as the eighth freest nation in the world and the second freest in Asia.

Besides its progress as a democracy, Taiwan demonstrates the success of capitalism. With only 24 million people, the ROC ranks among the 25 largest economies in the world. It produces 60% of all semiconductors worldwide.

Taiwan’s strategic location is crucial. It lies on one side of the Taiwan Strait. China is on the other. Roughly 25% of global trade passes through this busy waterway. For the People’s Republic of China to control both sides of the Taiwan Strait would be a disaster. It would allow the communist regime to shut off the trade route whenever it chose.

Mr. Trump must make Mr. Xi give up his obsession with Taiwan.

Despite the strategic ambiguity of the “One China” policy, Taiwan is not part of China. Except for a few years at the end of World War II, it has been 130 years since the island was ruled by the mainland. Taiwan has never been part of the People’s Republic of China.

Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the United States is obligated to help Taiwan defend itself.

For the PRC, conquering Taiwan is not a matter of soothing wounded national pride. China’s communist rulers understand Taiwan’s strategic importance, given its location and economy. Besides control of the Taiwan Strait, control of Taiwan’s ports and air bases would give China the ability to project its power southward.

World history often turns on the fate of small nations: Czechoslovakia in 1938 and Israel and Ukraine today. World War II could have been averted in Munich. The Western democracies understand that Russia’s conquest of Ukraine would set off an era of conflict in Europe.

So it is with Beijing and Taipei. Taiwan is not the end of China’s territorial ambitions. It intends to dominate Asia and end U.S. influence in the region.

Mr. Trump must make clear to Mr. Xi that we will not allow that to happen.