One week ago Donald Trump was elected US president. Millions of words have been written since then about the US election and the forthcoming Trump administration, trying to fill the massive void left by the victory of a man with no political or government experience, a man who not only does not seem to know much about anything, but appears totally unconcerned by his ignorance.
“I don’t know” or “I saw it on the Internet” are not acceptable answers for a 10-year-old quizzed over a homework answer, much less an answer from the next US leader to reporters’ questions about his policy proposals or tweets.
Everyone wants to know what a Trump administration means for them, and people seem to be clutching at straws that Trump’s White House will not be the xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, deceit-filled house of horrors that his campaign was.
Many in Taiwan have taken comfort in the idea that the US under Republican administrations has treated Taiwan, and especially its arms requests, more favorably than US Democratic administrations.
However, Trump’s Republicanism is not the Republicanism of old and his isolationist stance could endanger Taiwanese and regional security, while his threats of trade protectionism could do real damage to Taiwan’s export-reliant economy, especially those businesses that have production bases in China, regardless of the “six assurances” reaffirmed in the US Republican party platform.
Platitudes about giving Trump a chance or about how Trump will have to appoint experienced people to his Cabinet and rely on them to turn his promises into policies cannot paper over the cracks.
The world is still reeling from the last time such an intellectual lightweight was in the White House with a team of “experienced hands.” Former US president George W. Bush sold a major arms package to Taiwan, thanks very much, but his decision to invade Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden led to the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the repeated contravention of the Geneva Conventions.
He then decided to invade Iraq — an ill-conceived war led by a US secretary of defense whose disregard for experts’ advice meant the US arrived with a force too small and ill-equipped to do the job, and one totally unprepared for post-invasion governance.
The resulting death toll of allied troops and Iraqis, has as of last year, by conservative estimates, exceeded half a million people, while the chaos and enmity resulting from those decisions fueled the rise of the Islamic State group. The world is a much more dangerous place as a result.
The list of things Trump has said he would be comfortable with — the use of torture as an instrument of policy, civilian casualties in bombing raids, taking Iraq’s oil, trade wars — is horrific, as is his disregard for the overt ethnic hatred his campaign inspired, not to mention his threats to jail his rival, curtail freedom of the media and use legal action to silence his critics.
Trump is a towering mass of contradictions.
He said he would be a president for all Americans, but he has appointed white supremacist Steve Bannon, a proponent of racism and anti-Semitism, as his chief strategist. He supports the US Supreme Court having the final say on same-sex marriage, but not on abortion. He touts education, but believes climate change is a hoax and has named a climate-science denier to head his Environmental Protection Agency transition team. His focus on “America first” could create dangerous gaps that China, Russia and others could exploit.
While many have lambasted Trump and his supporters for living in an alternate Fox News/Breitbart-based reality, they ignore that Trump has created a new reality, one in which the old mores, be they societal, political or economic do not apply.
However, acknowledging a Trump presidency does not mean accepting his view of the world or his remedies for problems.
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
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
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