Former representative to the US Chen Chien-jen (
The EU actually vetoed the cancelation of the arms ban by a vote of 14 to 1 last December. However, backed by France, China is likely to win the gradual support of Germany, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands. This year, Beijing has decided to stage a comeback, and to aggressively strive for the support of EU member states.
We must keep an eye on the Dutch presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of this year, and developments once Portugal's former prime minister Jose Manuel Barroso officially begins his five-year term as the president of the European Commission in November. In fact, the Dutch presidency already announced the inclusion in its priority agenda of new discussions on whether to withdraw the weapons ban on China.
In Europe, China has manipulated this issue for years and has won increased support. In Asia, Beijing also canceled its planned military exercises on Dongshan Island this month, adopting a tactic of expressing superficial goodwill to win greater European support. The withdrawal was certainly not an isolated incident in Asia. Rather, it was a part of China's global positioning as it continues to strengthen its military capacity.
But China's recent oppression of Taiwan shows Beijing's true colors. During this year's annual World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva from May 17 to 21, China continued to treat Taiwan as an enemy. It even strengthened efforts to block our participation in international affairs, and to prevent the Taiwanese people from obtaining the most basic right to health care.
Therefore, we should pay close attention to the other motives behind Beijing's cancelation of military drills -- especially its ultimate strategic goal of lobbying EU member states to lift the ban. If China is able to easily acquire advanced military technologies from Europe, peace and stability in east Asia will be severely damaged.
At present, China is the aggressor in the military confrontation across the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan is the one being threatened. Amid the continued domestic power struggles between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, we often forget that a powerful and authoritarian China is ready to annex Taiwan by force at any time. Taiwan called off the annual Han Kuang military exercise to lower regional tensions out of goodwill. But both President Chen Shui-bian (
Moreover, we must remind our friends in the EU that the reason for the ban -- to protest Beijing's crackdown on democracy and human rights during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre -- has not disappeared. Not to mention that the Chinese government is notorious for oppressing the Falun Gong religion, restricting democracy and freedom in Hong Kong and cracking down on Chinese dissidents.
French President Jacques Chirac will visit China next month and the EU will begin its various working meetings this month. I hereby urge the Taiwanese government and people to pay close attention to these related issues, as well as to the possible damage to Taiwan. Above all, we must mobilize our European friends to oppose the removal of the EU's arms embargo on China.
Wu Chih-chung is the secretary-general of the European Union Study Association-Taiwan, and an assistant professor in the department of political science at Soochow University.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry