China has withdrawn a promise not to send troops or administrators to Taiwan after taking it back, an official document showed on Wednesday, signalling a decision by President Xi Jinping to grant less autonomy than previously suggested.
Chinaโs white paper on its position on self-ruled Taiwan follows days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises near the island, which Beijing claims as its territory, in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosiโs visit last week.
Taiwan rejects Chinaโs sovereignty claims, says the islandโs people should decide its future, and vows to defend its democracy.
China had said in two previous white papers on Taiwan, in 1993 and 2000, that it โwill not send troops or administrative personnel to be based in Taiwanโ after achieving unification.
That line, meant to assure Taiwan it would enjoy autonomy after becoming a special administrative region of China, did not appear in the latest white paper.
Chinaโs ruling Communist Party had proposed that Taiwan could return to its rule under a โone country, two systemsโ model, similar to the formula under which the former British colony of Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
That would offer some autonomy to democratically ruled Taiwan to partially preserve its social and political systems.
A line in the 2000 white paper that said โanything can be negotiatedโ as long as Taiwan accepts that there is only one China and does not seek independence, is also missing from the latest white paper.
The updated white paper is called โThe Taiwan Question and Chinaโs Reunification in the New Eraโ. The โnew eraโ is a term commonly associated with Xiโs rule.
Taiwan has lived under the threat of Chinese invasion since 1949, when the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island after Mao Zedongโs Communist Party won a civil war.
