Renewed civil war over Taiwan may be option for Beijing: mainland researcher

Beijing could choose a moment to revive “civil war operations” against Taiwan and impose “direct governance” over the island during that time, a mainland researcher has proposed in a prominent academic journal.

Wang Heting, a researcher with Centre for Taiwan Studies at Xiamen University, made the suggestion in an article published in the bimonthly journal Taiwan Studies.

The journal is put out by the mainland’s most important Taiwan-related think tank, the Beijing-based Institute of Taiwan Studies, under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“In order to effectively safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity … the central government could choose an opportune moment to resume civil war operations,” Wang wrote, without saying when that “moment” could be.

Wang, who is also a professor at Soochow University’s Marxism school, went on to say that “at the control phase during wartime, direct governance could be implemented in Taiwan to expedite the end of armed conflict and facilitate a transition”.

“In the post-war peaceful reconstruction phase, order could be restored through appointed governance to achieve a state of peace, gradually reconstructing the central-local relationship and Taiwan’s political system, and promoting cross-strait political integration and social cohesion,” he wrote.