US President Donald Trump arrived in China on Wednesday. This is the leg of his Asia trip that has attracted the most attention.
As White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro, a “China expert” who is anti-Beijing, was forced to be absent from the trip and Trump has not built a strong team to deal with China affairs, the rest of the world had been worried about how his visit would go.
The latest Time magazine cover features the words “China won,” in both English and simplified Chinese.
Meanwhile, China had intentionally curried favor with Trump so that he would be overwhelmed and forget to uphold US principles.
When then-US president Ronald Reagan visited China in 1984, the Chinese authorities gave him an “emperor’s dream” by letting him sleep on an emperor’s “dragon bed.” This time, they treated Trump with an extremely luxurious “emperor’s banquet” at the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Unlike all the previous visits, the two nations’ top aides did not reach a number of consensuses before the trip; they merely followed customs. As a result, what problems might arise during the process was unpredictable. Both sides faced a real test.
Still, it was reassuring to see that the US launched its new “Indo-Pacific tactic” before Trump’s Asia trip. Originally, the Asia-Pacific countries were anxious as he failed to reiterate former US president Barack Obama’s “Asia pivot” policy. Now, the scope of the Indo-Pacific tactic is even larger, and the term itself sounds more scientific, not to mention that it actually covers the second half of China’s “One Belt, One Road” project.
The new strategy originated from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s idea of a “diamond tactic” based on a diamond-shaped alliance of the four major democracies in the Indo-Pacific region — the US, Japan, India and Australia.
While the US tactic highlights the solidity of US-Japan relations, Taiwan can also benefit from the tactic, as it is in line with the nation’s New Southbound Policy. The US’ new tactic might even replace the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement from which Washington has already withdrawn.
As the name implies, the scope of the Indo-Pacific tactic includes other countries bordering the Indian Ocean apart from India, such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, as well as those bordering the Arabian Sea and the coastal countries of East Africa.
China has built ports on the Indian Ocean in Myanmar and Pakistan, and it owns a military port stationed with Chinese troops in Djibouti in East Africa. As a result, tensions are expected to rise in the Indian Ocean region.
Moreover, the term “Indo” in this context overlaps Indonesia and the Indochinese peninsula, including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. This gives the name a special meaning, as the total population of those countries is higher than that of China.
Within the scope of the new tactic, the friendship of India, Vietnam and Russia has lasted for more than half a century, and all three are facing the threat of the expansion of a greater Chinese empire.
The US should promptly clarify Trump’s role in the alleged “Russiagate” scandal and improve US-Russia relations, while convincing its European allies to accept this. By doing so, it would be able to deal with the “red peril” that threatens world peace and universal values.
If Trump wants to make America great again, this is how he can do it.
Paul Lin is a senior commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
They did it again. For the whole world to see: an image of a Taiwan flag crushed by an industrial press, and the horrifying warning that “it’s closer than you think.” All with the seal of authenticity that only a reputable international media outlet can give. The Economist turned what looks like a pastiche of a poster for a grim horror movie into a truth everyone can digest, accept, and use to support exactly the opinion China wants you to have: It is over and done, Taiwan is doomed. Four years after inaccurately naming Taiwan the most dangerous place on
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) made a statement that provoked unprecedented repudiations among the European diplomats in Taipei. Chu said during a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that what President William Lai (賴清德) has been doing to the opposition is equivalent to what Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany, referencing ongoing investigations into the KMT’s alleged forgery of signatures used in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party legislators. In response, the German Institute Taipei posted a statement to express its “deep disappointment and concern”
RSS