A new pastime for US officials is to slam Taiwan over the repeated failure of the special arms procurement budget bill to pass. It is understandable that Taiwan's supporters in the US should be frustrated over the pan-blue camp's efforts to thwart this important piece of legislation. But simply giving Taiwanese politicians a tongue-lashing is not enough to make this issue move forward, and indeed, only exacerbates the problem.
The US must take concrete action to help resolve this issue. That can happen with two simple steps.
The first step is to deny visas to prominent politicians who oppose the arms deal. This is justified for a host of reasons.
First, it was the US that took the gamble and approved the weapons systems for release in early 2001, despite the attendant political fallout with Beijing. Despite its many faults, the Bush administration forsook smoother ties with China in an effort to bolster Taiwan's democracy by providing for its defense.
Second, Washington must be resolved in demonstrating to the people of Taiwan that undermining US-Taiwan relations has consequences. But this needn't come at the expense of Taiwan itself -- it should be those responsible for weakening US-Taiwan relations that pay a price. And given that many prominent politicians maintain residences, connections and bank accounts in the US, this shouldn't be hard to do. Deny their visas when they apply for entry, for whatever reason.
The pan-blues will get the message pretty quickly, but more importantly, so will the people of Taiwan.
The next step that Washington should take is very easy, and very specific. The US Department of Defense should abandon the naive policy guideline implemented by former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 that prevents Taiwan from helping to build the eight diesel-electric submarines that are in the special budget. Until legislators have a tangible reason to support the procurement, they will oppose it. There are too many ideological issues involved for the bill to pass in its current form. But as soon as lawmakers see that their constituents will be getting jobs and their backers contracts from the deal, it will begin to move forward.
Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England was one of the key players in Taiwan's Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) project, and he understands the importance of having local involvement to get things done. Although the IDF is criticized in some quarters, it is an example of a successful joint-procurement project. England should know why Wolfowitz's guideline must be abandoned.
The point of all of this is that the US must be more creative when it addresses Taiwan's domestic political situation. Having congressmen or bureaucrats shout and stomp their feet with frustration is ineffective, to put it charitably. When US officials place blame anywhere -- no matter how vaguely that blame is placed -- it only gives local lawmakers sticks with which to beat each other, furthering the divisiveness in Taiwan's fledgling democracy.
And that is the key point. Taiwan has been a true democracy for less than a decade. There are major deficiencies in the current system of government, some of which will take many years to address. But the US has a responsibility -- both in terms of realpolitik and ideology -- to ensure that Taiwan's democracy is secure. To do this, it must first understand the situation clearly, and then take considered action which fits into an overall strategy for Taiwan.
Taiwan-US ties will keep advancing beyond the administrations of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and President George W. Bush, beyond the special arms budget fiasco and other problems that arise. Every domestic political battle in Taiwan is an opportunity for the US to bolster democracy by helping to reconcile opposing positions.
So lend a hand.
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