China’s call on APEC meet
During last year’s APEC summit in Indonesia, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) expressed his willingness to engage Taiwan in political dialogue.
Political issues should not be left to the next generation to resolve, Xi said.
Although the idea of such an unprecedented meeting taking place between the two nation’s leaders remains rather optimistic, champions of the meeting have not given up trying.
APEC was founded in 1989. It currently has 21 members — not all of them sovereign nations. All the APEC heads of state attend the leaders’ meeting under the title of economic leader. Taiwan has been a member since 1991, going by the name “Chinese Taipei,” but Taiwan’s leaders are barred from APEC summits due to objections from China, which claims sovereignty over the nation. To avoid political complications, Taiwan is traditionally represented by a retired politician rather than a sitting president.
APEC was designed for economic leaders to meet without using their official titles, and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reiterated his hope to meet with Xi at next month’s APEC meeting, saying that it would be a convenient venue to sidestep the thorny issues of non-recognition between the two sides. Thus, Taipei [was] still trying to persuade Beijing to agree to a historic meeting between the top leaders this year.
It is generally believed that a Ma-Xi meeting would be more symbolic than substantial. However, if it happens, it would be a great achievement in itself. If Beijing were willing to signal to 23 million people in Taiwan that it is willing to take on the cross-strait issue, the best way to do so would be to agree to the meeting.
The meeting is scheduled for Nov. 10 and 11 in Beijing and the ball is in China’s court. While maintaining its principles, Beijing should be strategically flexible and creative in a bid to help sustain peace across the Taiwan Strait.
Can Ma and Xi meet? Can Beijing maintain firmness in principle, without forgetting the need for flexibility, creative thinking and groundbreaking approaches? It all depends on Xi.
If Beijing passes up this rare opportunity to hold a landmark meeting, any regret will be too late.
Kent Wang
Potomac Falls, Virginia
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
After “Operation Absolute Resolve” to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, the US joined Israel on Saturday last week in launching “Operation Epic Fury” to remove Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his theocratic regime leadership team. The two blitzes are widely believed to be a prelude to US President Donald Trump changing the geopolitical landscape in the Indo-Pacific region, targeting China’s rise. In the National Security Strategic report released in December last year, the Trump administration made it clear that the US would focus on “restoring American pre-eminence in the Western hemisphere,” and “competing with China economically and militarily
RSS