The Taiwanese community and foreign policy analysts in the US were shocked on Friday when the New York Times published an op-ed article calling on US President Barack Obama to sell out Taiwan for China.
Paul Kane, a former international security fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, said in the op-ed: “With a single bold act, President Obama could correct the country’s course, help assure his re-election, and preserve our children’s future.”
“He should enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the [US]$1.14 trillion of American debt currently held by China in exchange for a deal to end American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminate the current United States-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015,” Kane said.
“Today, America has little strategic interest in Taiwan, which is gradually integrating with China economically by investing in and forming joint ventures with mainland Chinese firms. The island’s absorption into mainland China is inevitable,” he added.
However, if things go wrong between Taiwan and China, Kane said, the US could be suddenly drawn into a multi-trillion-dollar war.
Kane said: “The Chinese leadership would be startled — for a change — if the US were to adopt such a savvy negotiating posture. Beyond reducing our debt, a Taiwan deal could pressure Beijing to end its political and economic support for pariah states. It would be a game changer.”
He said “the deal” would eliminate almost 10 percent of US national debt, would redirect US foreign policy away from dated entanglements and would eliminate the risk of involvement in a costly war.
“Critics will call this proposal impractical, even absurd. They will say it doesn’t have a prayer of passing Congress and doesn’t acknowledge political realities … But by pursuing this agenda, Obama would change the calculus and political reality. And Congress should see a deal with China as an opportunity to make itself credible again,” Kane added. “By tackling the issue of Taiwan, Obama could address much of what ails him today, sending a message of bold foreign policy thinking and fiscal responsibility that would benefit every citizen and be understood by every voter.”
Taiwan supporters in the US said the most disturbing aspect of the situation was that the New York Times considered the argument important enough to publish.
Several also said that it was the latest of a series of articles written by academics and analysts that propose ending arms sales to Taiwan and abandoning the nation.
Dan Blumenthal, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Taipei Times: “Abandoning Taiwan for the purposes of economic recovery is a non sequitur. China will not ‘write off our debt,’ it will keep wanting to buy our debt as long as we have debt to buy because of its distorted economy.”
“Abandoning Taiwan has been tried. First in 1979, which led to Taiwan trying to build nuclear weapons. More recently, we have had at least two arms freezes this decade. The result? China has picked on pretty much everyone else in the region,” Blumenthal said.
“What the author is really calling for is our looking the other way in a forced occupation of Taiwan. A forcible occupation of Taiwan is not a recipe for global economic growth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Douglas Paal, a Taiwan expert and vice president of studies at the Carnegie Endowment, said: “My first response was that the Kane article must have been written for April Fool’s Day — so outrageous is the concept — it must have been intended as a joke.”
“Taiwan belongs to the people of Taiwan and they will decide their future, not Washington. And by the way, Beijing is in no position to spend the billions of dollars in Treasury bills to buy anything,” Paal said.
“Those T-bills are repositories for money the Chinese government has borrowed from the people and businesses of China on which the authorities must pay interest,” Paal said.
The Web site “Business Insider” said Kane had presented “the worst idea ever for dealing with our national debt.”
“This idea isn’t simply far-fetched, it’s just ludicrous. What Kane is advocating is an abdication of our strategic self-direction,” it said.
“What’s scary is not that this will ever happen — it won’t — but that the size of the debt is causing people to think loonier and loonier things,” the Web site said.
National Review Online called the op-ed “goofy.”
“Does anyone think that a sell out deal would have any result except a declaration of independence by Taiwan?” the op-ed said.
“They’d figure at that point they had nothing to lose, causing the ChiComs to react and then we might indeed get drawn into a war,” it 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