The US suffered unprecedented casualties in Tuesday's terrorist attacks. Evidence is mounting that the attacks were prompted by conflict and hatred between different cultures and religions. Ideological conflict was a hallmark of the 20th century -- but the Taiwan Strait, the two Koreas and the Middle East remain internationally recognized flashpoints as we entered the 21st century. China has rapidly increased the number of its ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan from 200-plus to 350. This should be a cause of international concern.
At a recent international forum, Vice Premier Qian Qichen (
Such rhetoric is so conditioned a reflex that it has become a laughable cliche -- despite the efforts of Beijing academics to claim that China has given up its duplicitous doubletalk. They say Qian's remarks were the first time he has told an international audience that "There is only one China in the world. The mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. China's sovereignty and territory are inalienable." Whether small changes in the audience for such a speech represent a real change in China's Taiwan policy is hard to determine.
It has been hard to perceive goodwill in Beijing's recent behavior. Some say Beijing's successful Olympic bid will ensure seven years of peace in the Strait. But Qian has vowed not to renounce the use of force against Taiwan and the sound of gunfire continues to roar on Dongshan island, the site of massive war games by the People's Liberation Army.
Xiong Guangkai (
Peace remains a distant ideal. Some say China will become a model of economic globalization after its entry into the WTO. But economic freedom in China is still a long way off, given the way it punished Credit Suisse First Boston for helping Taiwan's finance minister hold investment roadshows in Europe.
Any talk from Beijing about having a consistent Taiwan policy will be of little benefit. Taiwan will have to both "listen to its words and observe its actions" -- judging Beijing's intentions by its actions. If Beijing truly wants to demonstrate its sincerity, the best way to do it would be to invite Chen to the APEC leaders' summit in Shanghai.
Only when President Jiang Zemin (
Both sides of the Strait should learn one of the lessons from Tuesday's terrorist atrocities: hatred should not be accumulated; grudges should not be increased. As long as China can extend a respectful, equitable attitude, Taiwan can patiently wait for the arrival of peace.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs