Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to Europe has further highlighted the changing world order, especially the relations between China, the US and the EU. It speaks of an audacious, long-term plan by Beijing on the same scale as the US’ post-war hegemonic rise.
These shifts involve issues of national security, international trade and media manipulation, and will have an impact on Taiwan’s security.
US protectionism under the administration of US President Donald Trump is causing jitters among traditional US allies and competitors alike. This is pushing the EU and China closer, or at least accelerating a process that China’s rise has made all but inevitable.
Days after Xi signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that saw Italy embrace his Belt and Road Initiative, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the Chinese leader to Paris.
Macron conspicuously invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to his meeting with Xi to put a united face on the proceedings, compared with the country-to-country meeting between Xi and Conte.
Despite Macron’s reservations on issues of trade openness and human rights violations with China, and his caution about joining any Belt and Road Initiative projects, the scale of the trade agreements signed between France and China vastly outstripped those detailed in the Xi-Conte deal. France and China signed 15 contracts, including a 300-airplane order from Airbus, alone worth 30 billion euros (US$33.83 billion).
Within the context of the US-China trade dispute and the issues facing US plane maker Boeing, the huge Airbus contract speaks volumes. It is not mere economics; it is part of a realignment of international trade. The EU will benefit. For China, the implications are part of its strategy to become a world superpower.
Another part of this strategy is the control of perceptions of China in the media, the subject of a report released on Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders, China’s Pursuit of a New World Media Order. The report ties China’s attempts to dominate international media with the Belt and Road Initiative. Both programs are working toward the same end: hegemonic dominance of the international order to rival that of the US.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday criticized Beijing for trying to distort reporting on the Xi-Conte meeting, translating a part in the signed communique confirming Italy’s continued adherence to the “one China” policy to say that Italy now follows the “one China” principle.
The two are not the same thing. The mistranslation is another example of Beijing’s attempts to subtly shift the goal posts to affect international perceptions of cross-strait relations.
Taiwan can take a certain amount of reassurance from the Trump administration’s relatively vocal support. This is part and parcel of a harder stance against Beijing and other traditional allies, but this same stance is pushing Beijing and the EU together, which is concerning in itself.
In the Heartland Theory submitted to the Royal Geographical Society in 1904, Halford Mackinder argued that control over Eurasia — what he called the “World Island” — would eventually lead to world domination. US naval historian and strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that control over the seas meant control over the world.
Beijing has a long way to go before it can challenge the US in terms of economic and maritime power. China’s one-party system means that it can quite happily play the long game.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS