These are all hints that a power struggle is about to break out between the major East Asian powers.
Taiwan's treatment at the Shangri-La Dialogue deteriorates with each meeting.At the previous meeting, both military and government officials from Taiwan participated, but -- perhaps due to the scope and level of Chinese protests -- Taiwan's absence from the third dialogue last year meant that only Taiwanese academics were invited to participate this year, and then only in the capacity of guests and not representatives of the nation.
Such attitudes toward Taiwan's participation in a dialogue about security and military issues in the Asia-Pacific are in fact common. The main reason for this is -- apart from the issue of Beijing's pressure and diplomacy -- that everyone has expectations in relation to Beijing's role and participation.
As a result, the organizers often place restrictions on themselves.
The fact is that China would not send top level officials to the Shangri-La Dialogue even if Taiwan did not participate, because it understands that doing so would make it a common target. Since Beijing puts its army under the command of the party, it does not want to let senior military leaders have too much international exposure.
In his address, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (
But when the Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, changing the world, European countries relied on multilateral exchanges and trade integration to let East European countries join the EU.
Finding answers to the questions of how Asian countries should deal with the lessons of history and how the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should maintain peace and stability is not only the responsibility of decision-makers, it would also bring us to the Shangri-La we are all dreaming about.
Philip Yang is a professor of political science at the National Taiwan University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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