In response to the article "Poor word choice or a policy shift?" (Oct. 27, page 8): US Secretary of State Colin Powell's remarks that "Taiwan does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation" confuses a policy expedient ("one China") with reality.
The Republic of China (ROC)meets the four criteria for statehood as defined by the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States: one, a permanent population; two, a defined territory; three, government; and four, capacity to enter into relations with other states. The Convention says, "The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by other states" and "Recognition is unconditional and irrevocable." Just because the US doesn't recognize President Fidel Castro's Cuba doesn't mean Cuba is not a state. The US transfer of recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 did not cause the ROC to cease to be a state.
Powell's expectation that Beijing and Taipei will move toward a "peaceful unification" violates the decades-old nuanced US policy of peaceful resolution of differences between Taiwan and China, while not prejudicing any final outcome.
Vincent Wang
Richmond, Virginia
On March 22, 2023, at the close of their meeting in Moscow, media microphones were allowed to record Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) telling Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, “Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Widely read as Xi’s oath to create a China-Russia-dominated world order, it can be considered a high point for the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea (CRINK) informal alliance, which also included the dictatorships of Venezuela and Cuba. China enables and assists Russia’s war against Ukraine and North Korea’s
After thousands of Taiwanese fans poured into the Tokyo Dome to cheer for Taiwan’s national team in the World Baseball Classic’s (WBC) Pool C games, an image of food and drink waste left at the stadium said to have been left by Taiwanese fans began spreading on social media. The image sparked wide debate, only later to be revealed as an artificially generated image. The image caption claimed that “Taiwanese left trash everywhere after watching the game in Tokyo Dome,” and said that one of the “three bad habits” of Taiwanese is littering. However, a reporter from a Japanese media outlet
Taiwanese pragmatism has long been praised when it comes to addressing Chinese attempts to erase Taiwan from the international stage. “Taipei” and the even more inaccurate and degrading “Chinese Taipei,” imposed titles required to participate in international events, are loathed by Taiwanese. That is why there was huge applause in Taiwan when Japanese public broadcaster NHK referred to the Taiwanese Olympic team as “Taiwan,” instead of “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. What is standard protocol for most nations — calling a national team by the name their country is commonly known by — is impossible for
India is not China, and many of its residents fear it never will be. It is hard to imagine a future in which the subcontinent’s manufacturing dominates the world, its foreign investment shapes nations’ destinies, and the challenge of its economic system forces the West to reshape its own policies and principles. However, that is, apparently, what the US administration fears. Speaking in New Delhi last week, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau warned that “we will not make the same mistakes with India that we did with China 20 years ago.” Although he claimed the recently agreed framework
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