The Chinese Communist Party’s 18th National Congress last month elected Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) as the party’s new general secretary. Several things have happened since then that indicate Xi will take a hawkish line in foreign relations. These include China expressing its intention to strictly enforce its law in the South China Sea, its controversial inclusion of its territorial claims in the design of its new passports and repeated encroachments by Chinese vessels into waters surrounding the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known as the Senkakus in Japan.
Just days before Japan’s general election on Dec. 16, China sent a reconnaissance plane to patrol the Diaoyutais, angering Japanese voters and helping Liberal Democratic Party leader Shinzo Abe, whom China regards as a rightist, become prime minister again. The incident won support for Abe’s advocacy of tougher policies on China. Japanese media said China’s actions seemed designed to win votes for Abe’s party. One might think that China’s leaders actually supported Abe’s call for Japan to alter its Constitution to make its Self-Defense Forces into a national military. Did Beijing not know what would come of such hawkish tactics?
Abe talked tough before the election, but on Dec. 22, he said his government would delay its plan to station coast guard officials on the Diaoyutai Islands. Abe said that Japan’s relationship with China was among its most important bilateral relations and that his government would make efforts to relaunch a mutually beneficial relationship with China.
However, on the very same day, China sent a surveillance plane into airspace about 100km north of the Diaoyutai Islands. The Chinese plane flew away after the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force dispatched fighter planes to intercept it. However, China’s move was a kick in the teeth for Abe, just as he spoke in such friendly terms.
Maybe China’s leaders think such actions strengthen their efforts to extend China’s sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands, but actually they are ineffective and will cause significant long-term damage to China’s image and national interests. The alliance between the US and Japan will get even closer, and the aim of amending Japan’s “Peace Constitution” will become easier to achieve. China’s actions will provide a rationale for Japan and its allies to exercise their right to collective self-defense.
The threat to Taiwan’s security comes from China. The nation’s security depends on getting help from its strategic allies, the US-Japan security alliance. However, since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) assumed office, his government has leaned excessively toward China and this policy has eroded confidence among Taiwan’s strategic allies. One sign of this is the US government’s refusal to sell more advanced weapons to Taiwan.
Although Ma insists that he has no intention of allying with China to resist Japan, he has permitted government vessels from Taiwan to escort fishing boats flying China’s national flag to land on the Diaoyutai Islands. Ma has never said a word about encroachments by Chinese government vessels and reconnaissance planes in the sea and airspace around the Diaoyutai Islands, which are Taiwan’s territory. This gives the international community the impression that Taiwan is acquiescing to Chinese sovereignty over the Diaoyutais.
Taiwan must strongly denounce the incursions by Chinese government vessels and surveillance planes around the Diaoyutais. Only by doing so can Taiwanese reverse the impression Taiwan is allying with China to resist Japan and mend the trust between Taiwan and its allies.
Chen Kuo-hsiung is a researcher with the Taiwan National Security Institute.
Translated by Julian Clegg
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
A report by the US-based Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday last week warned that China is operating illegal oil drilling inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island (Dongsha, 東沙群島), marking a sharp escalation in Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. The report said that, starting in July, state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp installed 12 permanent or semi-permanent oil rig structures and dozens of associated ships deep inside Taiwan’s EEZ about 48km from the restricted waters of Pratas Island in the northeast of the South China Sea, islands that are home to a Taiwanese garrison. The rigs not only typify
RSS