President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) efforts to improve relations with China will create new challenges for US policymakers amid concerns that those efforts could compromise US interests in the East Asian region, a new congressional report says.
The report was sent to members of Congress last month by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a body that provides research and advice to lawmakers on policy issues they will have to deal with in the coming period. Its findings often condition how Congress deals with issues such as Taiwan.
“While US policy favors improvements in Taiwan-PRC [People’s Republic of China] relations, it has been silent on what should be the speed, depth, and degree of cross-strait conciliation,” the report said.
“Some observers worry that the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] government, driven by economic imperatives and pressures from the Taiwan business community, quickly could reach an accommodation with Beijing that may complicate US regional interests,” it said.
The report contrasted US policy choices under Ma with the increasingly frigid Taiwan-US relations during the last years of the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) administration.
While it found many of the Chen-era problems remaining, it saw both opportunities and potential problems under the Ma administration.
“With Taiwan under the KMT government, the United States will be faced with challenges familiar from past years,” including new arms sales, visa requests by Ma and other senior Taiwanese officials, the level of relations with Ma and such economic issues as whether to grant Taiwan a free-trade agreement, the report by CRS Asia specialist Kerry Dumbaugh said.
“In addition, Taiwan-US relations under the KMT government face new challenges — notably the implications that President Ma’s initiatives toward the PRC have for US interests; and what role, if any, Washington should play in Taiwan-PRC relations,” the report said.
Regarding the freeze in US arms sales to Taiwan, the CRS report said the issue “takes on new shades of delicacy in an environment of improving Taiwan-PRC ties.”
New sales or a continuation of the year long freeze can have “symbolic significance” for China and Taiwan, it said.
“US policymakers will be faced with decisions on what kind of signal a specific US arms sale will send under current circumstances,” and future sales “may have significant implications for cross-strait ties,” it said.
The report also called for a strengthened Democratic Progressive Party as an effective opposition to KMT rule.
“Many feel that US interests in having Taiwan remain a full-fledged democracy may be compromised should the opposition remain too feeble effectively to monitor and hold accountable the majority party,” the report said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique