Chinese experts unravel US calculations in playing 'Taiwan card'

BEIJING -- The US attempt to obstruct China's complete reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by playing the "Taiwan card" is doomed to fail, Chinese experts have said.

Regarding China as the main adversary and long-term challenge, the United States has been hyping up the Taiwan question over recent years, and its real purpose is to contain China, said Wang Shushen, a researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The United States has played the "Taiwan card" frequently and in various ways, ranging from visits and arms sales to China's Taiwan region to moves instigating Taiwan to "decouple with the Chinese mainland economically," Wang said.

The United States never acts in the interests of Taiwan, but on the contrary, it is squeezing Taiwan to obtain political and economic benefits, noted Li Haidong, head of the American Studies Center of China Foreign Affairs University.

Experts said that knowing that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities rely on the United States to seek "Taiwan independence," the US side uses Taiwan as a "cash machine", making Taiwan spend heavily on arms purchase and buy US passenger aircraft, among others. It also demanded the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited build plants in the United States and share business documents including inventory and client lists with the purpose of alleviating its own shortage of chips.

The DPP authorities only achieved some illusioned political benefits at a high economic cost, Zhang Guanhua, deputy head of the CASS Institute of Taiwan Studies, pointed out. The consequences are destined to be borne by Taiwan people, Zhang said.

The DPP authorities' acts of betting the future of Taiwan on some greedy and selfish US anti-China politicians are extremely irresponsible and dangerous, said Zeng Runmei, a researcher with the CASS Institute of Taiwan Studies.

Echoing Zeng, Zhu Songling, a professor on Taiwan studies from Beijing Union University, said acting as the pawn of US anti-China forces and recklessly seeking "Taiwan independence," the DPP authorities have misjudged the situation and made wrong calculations. "They will never succeed," said Zhu.