It's time Washington did the right thing

State sovereignty has its origin in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, when the treaty that ended the Thirty Years' War established that every state is sovereign and has the right to determine its domestic affairs without external interference, which has been the basis of international relations and coexistence for centuries.

Article 2 (7) of the United Nations Charter says that nothing shall authorize intervention in matters essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state. This means every state has the right to govern itself without external interference (including the United Nations).

Former British prime minister Winston Churchill once said, "Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else." To realize the veracity of this quote, one has to just look at the way the United States has handled its relations with China, particularly on the Taiwan question. The US' actions are dangerous because in such cases, a single mistake could lead to a global catastrophe, with profound impacts on international trade and global stability.

In a world still struggling to overcome the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and military conflicts, the destabilization of the global supply chains will be a serious blow to humankind.

The US' provocative moves are nothing but an interference in an exclusively domestic matter of China. According to the one-China principle, widely accepted by the international community since the 1970s, there is only one China and Taiwan is an inseparable part of China. This principle is the cornerstone of Sino-US relations.

Nauru, one of the smallest countries in the world, recently changed its foreign policy, announcing severing its "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan and intending to establish official ties with Beijing after realizing how the one-China principle helps maintain regional stability and peace in the Pacific.

In recent years, to contain China, and even provoke a confrontation, the US and some of its allies have been encouraging, and goading the Taiwan island to take actions that would increase hostilities across the Taiwan Strait, ignoring the fact that Taiwan is an integral part of China.

Further, Lai Ching-te, who recently won the island's leadership election, could deteriorate cross-Strait relations if he pursues a separatist agenda. Needless to say such provocations are not beneficial to Taiwan, its people or the world.

The world has been close to nuclear winter on several occasions. Political forces, however, have acted in time to prevent the worst from happening. If China were to respond in kind to the US' continuous provocations, the world once again could encounter such a situation, which could cause enormous instability and upheaval.

On June 12, 1987, then US president Ronald Reagan delivered his most famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. He said: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." It was a call from Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev, then general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to break the Berlin Wall, which had been standing since 1961.

In contrast, Washington today, along with some of its allies, is building a wall against Beijing, by imposing trade sanctions on Beijing, expanding its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region and playing the Taiwan card. The US' actions, incidentally, are aimed at maintaining its global hegemony.

Despite knowing full well that Taiwan constitutes a redline in Sino-US relations, the US has been resorting to double standard, by on the one hand affirming the one-China principle and on the other doing the opposite by encouraging and supporting the separatists forces on the island. So before being swayed by the promises of support from the West, the island's leadership should read between the lines to realize the West only makes empty promises.

The US' dirty, strategic machinations once again became public when Mitch McConnel, Republican leader in the US Senate, in an interview two months ago, said the Ukrainians were providing a low-cost service for the US in the competition for global power, as most of the resources the US announced would be dispatched to Ukraine did not leave the US. On Washington's global chessboard, Kyiv is nothing more than a US pawn in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

The world does not need another military conflict to help the US maintain its global hegemony. The world is already facing one of its most complex and challenging times due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the brutal pounding of the Gaza Strip by Israel, the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the fierce response of the US and UK. What the world needs is global peace and common development.

However, global peace and development also depend on healthy cross-Strait ties and Taiwan's peaceful reunification with the motherland.

If US President Joe Biden wants to enter the history books, he should comply with the one-China principle. While there is time, Mr Biden, do the right thing: tear down the wall the West is building around China!

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.