Washington-based China-watchers are becoming increasingly apprehensive over the perceived failure by Taiwan and the US to use the current situation in the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen ties.
Robert Sutter, visiting professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, said Taiwan has shown little public interest in any steps toward re-engagement with the US that would “compromise its top focus on reassurance and cooperative interaction with China.”
Taiwan “seems to choose to stand with China,” he said.
In a paper published in this month’s edition of the Asia Pacific Bulletin, Sutter wrote that US President Barack Obama’s recent initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region “collectively represent the most significant shift in the regional dynamics of recent years.”
“China’s boorish behavior has ironically had the effect of underlining- the importance of the American initiatives,” he wrote. “Concerns over China’s actions and intentions have prompted regional countries from north to south to welcome and engage with the United States’ renewed activism.”
While counties are positioning themselves to work with Beijing in areas of common interest, Sutter wrote, they are also preparing for possible contingencies that involve “domineering Chinese assertiveness.”
However, Sutter said Taiwan was “a notable exception to this pattern.”
“In contrast to the public support found in the capitals of South Korea, Japan, ASEAN, India and other Asia-Pacific countries for the Obama administration’s greater regional activism, Taiwan has maintained a low public profile,” he wrote. “Presumably reflecting its interests and priorities, the government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) continues to devote its attention to advancing positive relations with China. It does not give much mention to relations with the United States or maneuverings by regional governments in the face of new challenges posed by recent Chinese assertiveness.”
Sutter said the Ma administration’s top priority appears to be reassuring China and that as a result Taiwan is less willing to follow others in the Asia-Pacific region in solidifying relations with the US in a period of Chinese assertiveness.
Reacting to Sutter’s conclusions, Claude Barfield wrote in The American, the journal of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think tank, that one possible explanation of Taiwan’s recent behavior could stem from the “delicate diplomatic maneuvering” leading up to the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
He said the ECFA and Taiwan’s goal of getting Beijing’s acquiescence — or silent permission — to negotiate additional free-trade agreements with other Asian countries was having an impact on Taipei’s links to Washington.
Barfield, director of Trade and Science and Technology Studies at AEI, wrote that Ma fears that any sign that Taiwan is “hedging” or siding with others against China could lead to a summary and decisive veto of further economic integration efforts.
Also this week, Walter Lohman, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, and Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, writing in the Investor’s Business Daily said the key to long-term stability across the Taiwan Strait and throughout the Asia-Pacific region was a “strong, free, prosperous and democratic Taiwan able to hold its own in its dealings with China.”
“This is possible only in the context of a healthy, action--oriented US-Taiwan relationship. And this time of relative peace and stability across the Strait is the perfect time to achieve it,” they wrote.
Lohman and Hammond--Chambers urged the Obama administration to move forward with a Taiwan free-trade agreement to “anchor Taiwan more securely in the international economic order.”
They both also support the sale of more advanced F-16C/D fighter aircraft and the upgrade of Taiwan’s existing older F-16A/B aircraft.
In addition, they want to institutionalize an annual strategic dialogue between senior US State Department and Department of Defense officials and their counterparts in Taiwan.
“This will limit the space for the sort of political games recently played with America’s -security commitment to Taiwan and help ensure that important decisions on arms sales are made in a timely manner,” they wrote.
Lohman and Hammond--Chambers said it has been more than 10 years since a US Cabinet officer visited Taiwan and suggest that the energy and commerce secretaries or the US trade representative should visit soon.
“Now is the time to push for stronger relations with Taiwan,” they wrote.
“If we don’t, the US may well wake up one day to find itself unable to influence events in the Taiwan Strait and ultimately in the broader Asia-Pacific region,” they wrote.
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