The EU's fifteen-year-old arms embargo against China will remain in place -- for now. Yet there's little cause for celebration, since all signs indicate that it's only a matter of time before the embargo is lifted. Right now, observers estimate it will happen in the spring of next year. However, the EU will be making a grave mistake if and when it does lift the ban. According to EU spokeswoman Francoise le Bail, "concern" about "civil rights, freedom of expression" and other human rights in China was the reason for the decision made during a two-day summit held between leaders of the Chinese and EU governments this week.
It's hard to imagine that human rights conditions in China will improve significantly in the future. After all, Beijing has had 15 years to improve things, but no serious efforts have been made. Human Rights Watch said it best in a statement released before the summit, in opposition to lifting the ban: "China's army turned its guns on its own people. If the ban is lifted, the next attack could be with weapons supplied by EU states." That is real food for thought, though EU governments are eager and desperate to export their advanced weapons to Beijing.
Proponents of lifting the embargo, including France and Germany, argue that things have changed over the past 15 years since Beijing's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy student protestors in Tiananmen Square. They are certainly right ? not only has Beijing failed to show any repentance for the crackdown and continued to abuse basic human rights, but they have gone on to become an even greater threat to regional peace. Fifteen years ago, China began developing economically, and today it is both backed by enormous wealth accumulated from rapid economic growth and propelled by its endless ambition. It has become a rapidly rising military power that poses a serious challenge even to the US, the world's superpower.
China's neighbors, of course, have a deeper appreciation of the threat posed by their powerful neighbor. Take Japan: Only this past Tuesday, the Japanese government lodged protests through formal diplomatic channels after confirming that a Chinese ship was conducting research off Japan's southernmost island Okinotorishima, and asked China to cease all unannounced geographical research in Tokyo's exclusive economic zone. Less than a month before, the Japanese protested a brief incursion by a Chinese submarine in Japanese waters.
Then there is of course Taiwan. Surely, no country in the world knows better what it is like to live with China's military threats, day after day. China's threat against Taiwan is so real that it was the reason the US opposed lifting the EU ban. According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue (
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS