During a stop in Hungary on Feb. 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautioned the US’ allies against doing business with Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies, saying doing so poses substantial information security and privacy risks.
Pompeo said that Huawei’s global expansion could make it more difficult for the US to collaborate with its allies and added: “If that equipment is co-located where we have important American systems, it makes it more difficult for us to partner alongside them.”
When Venezuela descended into a political crisis late last month, Pompeo also said that “it is time for every other nation to pick a side,” urging other countries to “stand with the forces of freedom.”
In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs retweeted Pompeo’s speech on its official Twitter account and added that “#Taiwan stands with the forces of freedom.”
Prior to this, Taiwan had announced that it was joining a US-led multinational alliance to ban Huawei products.
The Executive Yuan is also planning to publish a comprehensive list of equipment manufactured by Chinese-funded companies, so that every central government agency can have a better idea about which Chinese information and telecoms products they should not purchase.
The US and China are supporting different sides in the Venezuelan presidential crisis, and European and American democracies have declared that they are siding with the US.
As for the Taiwan Strait, its safety is constantly jeopardized by China’s military intimidation of Taiwan and cutting off channels of overseas arms sales that would enhance the nation’s defense capabilities.
The US, on the other hand, is normalizing its arms sales to Taiwan and dispatching military vessels through the Strait to show its determination.
Faced with China and the US’ drastically contrasting attitudes, Taiwan has not hesitated to side with the US and join the efforts to safeguard democracy, freedom and human rights.
From trade tensions to strategic competition, geopolitics has already provided Taiwan with an answer to its choice: Maintaining the “status quo” upholds the nation’s de facto independence and sustains the Taiwan-US partnership, although from a certain idealist perspectives, maintaining the “status quo” probably sounds like “doing nothing.”
However, from the perspective of the government’s pro-China stance during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) eight-year administration, rejecting the so-called “1992 consensus” and the idea that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to ‘one China’” shows what should and what should not to be done.
On Feb. 7, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver said that the US is well aware of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive pursuit of so-called “unification” with Taiwan, whether by isolating Taiwan, stealing away its diplomatic allies or conducting military drills around it.
He said that the US expects Taiwanese to uphold their own future and that the US would support Taiwan through the “faithful implementation” of the Taiwan Relations Act.
He also said that the US should take on a different mindset and strategic reactions toward China, but added that it does not have to make any changes in terms of its Taiwan policy.
A few days later, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush published a public letter on the Web site of Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution, writing that if China resorts to the use of “non-peaceful means” to respond to any moves toward Taiwanese independence, the US’ commitment to come to Taiwan’s defense “has never been absolute.”
Mulling over the advice from Schriver and Bush, it is clear that safeguarding Taiwan’s democracy and de facto independence is in the shared interest of Taiwan and the US.
Since 2016, the government has stuck to “maintaining the status quo,” which highlights Chinese changes to that “status quo.” Before long, this met with the rivalry between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), with Taiwan firmly on the side of the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy.
It is not difficult to imagine how tense Taiwan-US relations would be if the government insisted that there is “one China,” with each side of the Strait having its own interpretation of what “China” means, and did not rule out unification.
As neither China nor the US are willing to give way in their ongoing battle for dominance, some people still suggest that Taiwan should befriend China while remaining close to the US, as they think Taiwan could have its bread buttered on both sides — relying on US assistance for the nation’s defense, while dreaming about making a fortune in China. Frankly speaking, this is both naive and childish.
A commercial aircraft from New Zealand returning home after having been denied permission to land in Shanghai showed that China is taking the names of the countries siding with the US, and that there is no gray area in China’s perception of who is a friend and who is not.
In addition, as the US-China trade spat continues, the Chinese economy is showing signs of slowing down, and official Chinese-language newspaper Economic Information Daily has reported that economic growth is expected to drop to 6.3 percent this year.
That would be the lowest figure since the 2008 financial crisis. If economic problems were to develop into social and political problems, that would develop into a domestic crisis, and anyone who wanted to make a fortune in China would have to be careful so that they do not lose all of their investment.
Then again, Taiwan is geographically close to China, so peaceful coexistence is very important in the long run. The need to be friendly with China, therefore, is not in dispute. The crux of the matter is that the Chinese government is a one-party dictatorship ruling through digitally based totalitarianism, and it is threatening democratic Taiwan, the international order, fair trade and universal values.
To discuss friendship, unification and “one China” with such a government would not only be a threat to Taiwan’s very existence, but it would also be a continued threat to 1.4 billion Chinese and to the prosperity and development of the democratic world.
This is why people who want to befriend China while remaining close to the US must stop dreaming about audiences with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and give up talking about “being the descendants of the Yellow Emperor,” the “two sides of the Taiwan Strait being one family” and “arranged marriage,” while ignoring the Chinese people who also want to be masters of their own future.
Those who really want to guarantee the peaceful development of cross-strait relations must first direct their efforts toward pushing China to become a free country. That is the only kind of China that could be a constructive neighbor to Taiwan, and this is also what the trade spat is aiming for.
China and the US are testing each other’s strength, and US President Donald Trump has the upper hand.
When the victor is decided, Taiwan must make the right move lest it miss its chance and give Xi a helping hand.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming and Perry Svensson
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