President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) telephone call with then-US president-elect Donald Trump last month and his questioning of the “one China” policy have angered Beijing. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) mocked Tsai for playing a “petty trick,” but the call was planned weeks in advance and assisted by Trump’s Taiwan-friendly aides and advisers who see the nation as a natural ally of the US.
Understandably, Chinese officials are apprehensive that the Trump administration might eliminate one of the basic elements of normal Sino-US relations — US policy on “one China” — and challenge China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is to convene its 19th Congress toward the end of this year — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) first as party general secretary. In the run-up to the congress, Xi is preoccupied with internal power struggles and consolidation of his authority, and he needs predictability in the Sino-US relations and reassurance that there will be no surprises. Given Trump’s remarks and the statements of his Cabinet members, Beijing is uncertain and worried about the direction of Trump’s China policy.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials have blamed Taiwan for creating trouble, as their attitude toward Taiwan has been shifting toward a more hawkish direction inside the CCP. Tsai’s refusal to accept Beijing’s “one China” principle and what some party cadres see as the ongoing process of “de-Sinification,” or emphasis on a distinct Taiwanese identity by Tsai’s government, have raised concerns in Beijing that Taiwan is drifting out of its reach. Hence, Beijing is resorting to political warfare, economic coercion and threat of force to forestall Taiwan’s pursuit of independence.
The measures the CCP has employed include a divide-and-conquer strategy. Xi’s meeting with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman in Beijing in November last year is a prominent example. The CCP seeks to co-opt KMT leaders, pro-China political groups and fifth columns in Taiwan to promote its agenda: to create chaos, undermine Tsai’s government, oppose Taiwanese independence and facilitate Taiwan’s unification.
To put pressure on Tsai, Beijing has frozen official communications and engagements with Taipei, delayed meetings mandated by previous agreements and barred Taiwan’s ranking officials from attending meetings in China. To cripple Taiwan’s economy, China has restricted Chinese tourists to Taiwan, and suspended or reduced imports of Taiwan’s agricultural and industrial commodities.
As part of Beijing’s political and psychological warfare against Taiwan, it has used Western media outlets to spread Chinese propaganda and disinformation.
Reuters quoted a retired Chinese military officer as saying that Beijing does not need to fire any missiles to bring Taiwan to its knees, “we can just cut them [Taiwan] off economically, no more direct flights, no more trade, nothing. Taiwan would not last long.”
The Chinese military has also stepped up intimidation by conducting air patrols near Taiwan’s airspace. Earlier this month, a Chinese naval fleet headed by its sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, took part in drills around Taiwan.
China’s saber rattling and threats of force are futile exercises; Beijing is well aware that the US is committed to Taiwan’s security. The Taiwan Relations Act has put Beijing on notice that the US sees economic embargo, blockade or use of force to achieve unification as a matter of “grave concern” and declared an intention to “resist any resort of force” against people on Taiwan.
With the enactment of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, US-Taiwan military ties will be elevated and broadened. There would be senior military exchanges and enhanced military cooperation between the two nations. The Trump administration is solicitous of Taiwan’s defense needs and will likely forge closer military cooperation, including sales of sophisticated arms, such as fifth-generation warplanes — F35B jets, with stealth capabilities and vertical take-off and landing systems.
It is reassuring that Trump’s US secretary of state-designate Rex Tillerson has expressed his ardent commitment to support and implement the Taiwan Relations Act and the “six assurances.” His harsh criticism of China’s construction of artificial islands and the militarization of the South China Sea, as well as his veiled threat to block China’s access to the islands with force, provides a stark contrast to former US president Barack Obama’s administration’s muted and weak response to China’s audacious seizure of a US underwater drone in waters off the Philippines last month.
This is a powerful indication that the US, under Trump, is firm, resolved and ready to meet the challenge of China’s expansionism and hegemonic ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region.
On several occasions Tsai has assured US friends that Taiwan will be a dependable regional security partner. Undoubtedly, the US values Taiwan’s strategic importance and welcomes Taiwan’s vital role in safeguarding peace and security in the region. Many Americans have also urged the Tsai government to increase defense spending and invest in Taiwan’s security and national defense. First thing should come first — Taiwan must choose and act on its top priority.
Parris Chang is professor emeritus of political science at Pennsylvania State University and president of the Taiwan Institute for Political, Economic and Strategic Studies.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs