It is fascinating to watch from a distance the speeding trainwreck that is the campaign of Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump. Every day brings some new absurd statement, some threat to the constitutional democracy that is the US’ greatest achievement.
Trump is clearly playing to a distinct, partisan crowd, regardless of how his words might be taken by others in the US or elsewhere, whether it is his threats to build a wall along the US border with Mexico, his rants against China, his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, his insulting attitude toward women or his fascination with strongman tactics.
While the US elections are just under three weeks away, and “what if he wins” speculation remains just that, nations in Asia already have to deal with the fallout from the election of a similar demagogue closer to home.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won the election in May by promising to save what he said — echoing Trump — was a “nation in crisis,” by waging war on corruption and crime, redistributing wealth and creating a fairer society.
Any hopes that the former Davao mayor was speaking rhetorically were quickly dashed by the brutal wave of extrajudicial killings of suspected or alleged drug dealers that has claimed more than 3,000 lives since he took office. Even more chilling was his casual dismissal of the murders of children caught up in action by vigilantes or police — like the five-year-old girl slain in late August when her father was targeted — as simply collateral damage.
However, more worrying for Taiwan and its neighbors is Duterte’s rush to embrace China and restrict, if not break, one of the backbones to the balance of power in Asia: the US-Philippines defense alliance.
Where his predecessor sought a ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration after a tense standoff in April 2012 between Chinese and Philippine ships at Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), with the court in July ruling in favor of Manila, Duterte has made it clear that he will not challenge Beijing over the shoal or other disputed islets.
While he initially said that he would raise the court ruling in his talks this week in Beijing, he later said he would not, and yesterday it was announced that China and the Philippines would resume bilateral talks on territorial disputes. Beijing has long demanded that such disputes be handled bilaterally rather than regionally, and it has blocked efforts within ASEAN to take a united stand on disputes and the need to respect international law.
Duterte on Thursday said that as the US has lost militarily and economically, he was realigning himself to China’s “ideological flow,” and that it would be China, the Philippines and Russia against the world.
Yet much like the Republican officials in the US who have been left scrambling to “clarify” each Trump pronouncement, Cabinet officials in Manila have been kept busy making excuses for Duterte’s outbursts and statements.
Philippine Secretary of Trade and Industry Ramon Lopez and presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella yesterday said that Duterte did not mean that Manila would break with the US or renege on its treaties and agreements with allies.
Abella said that Duterte was restating his position on charting an independent foreign policy and “finding common ground with friendly neighbors ... in the spirit of mutual respect, support and cooperation.”
The trouble is that Duterte is creating two problems for himself and his nation. The first is that if the world is repeatedly told not to take his outbursts seriously and that what he says is not actually what will happen, then who will believe anything he says for the next six years? The second, as Taiwan can attest, is that mutual respect, support and cooperation only works with China as long as one does exactly as Beijing wants.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations