Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton called on Taiwan to renounce China’s “outlandish claims” to disputed territories in the East and South China Seas.
According to Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, China’s goal is to sow discord among its competitors by pitting Vietnam against the Philippines, isolating Japan and “neutralizing” Taiwan.
“Potential hostilities are no longer hypothetical,” Bolton wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Bolton said he believed the US must work diplomatically, “largely behind the scenes,” to resolve differences among the other claimants — including Taiwan.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked claimants to the South China Sea dispute to invite Taiwan to join discussions on formulating a code of conduct for the region.
The ministry reiterated that the Pratas Islands (Dongsha, 東沙島), the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), the Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha Islands, 中沙群島) and the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) belong to Taiwan.
The four island groups and their surrounding waters — potentially rich in natural resources — are also claimed either entirely or in part by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
“The more intra-ASEAN disputes we can eliminate, the greater the potential for a common position,” Bolton wrote. “This pragmatic diplomatic strategy of resolving non-Chinese competing claims hardly guarantees positive results, but it beats repeating academic mantras about international law.”
“Taiwan could also help politically by renouncing China’s outlandish claims to disputed territories,” he added.
Bolton said that China sees the disputed waters, islands, reefs and rock outcroppings through a “prism of increasing proximity.”
He condemned the US Navy cuts due to “draconian” budget reductions and US President Barack Obama’s “diffidence” in protecting US interests abroad.
Bolton urged the US to “decide unequivocally” that Beijing’s expansionism in the East and South China Seas is contrary to US national interests.
“These are high, tangible stakes for us and our Asian and Pacific friends, ranging broadly from Japan and South Korea to Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines,” Bolton wrote.
The stakes, he said, include undersea mineral resources and sea lanes of communication and trade critical to US and global prosperity.
“This is about power and resolve,” Bolton said.
He added that the US’ approach — watching while initially minor incidents risk escalating — puts Washington at a distinct disadvantage.
“Passivity will allow Beijing to prevail repeatedly, incident after incident, until US weakness becomes so palpable that there is no doubt of China’s across-the-board success,” he wrote.
“America’s China policy should be comprehensive, agile and persistent, but one fixed element must be that the international waters around China will not become Lake Beijing,” he concluded.
In related news, a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday that the row over the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) could be worse.
Speaking in Taipei at the launch of the Chinese-language version of his book The Perils of Proximity: China-Japan Security Relations, Richard Bush said that “if Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, had bought the islands,” instead of the Japanese government, the situation would have been much worse.
The Japanese government signed a ¥2.05 billion (US$26 million) deal on Tuesday to buy three of the Diaoyutai Islands, which are claimed by Japan, Taiwan and China.
This has caused tensions to rise in the region, as the Taiwanese and Chinese governments voiced strong protests against Japan’s move.
Bush said that if Ishihara, a well-known right-wing nationalist, had succeeded in buying the islands, it would have made people in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China “extremely unhappy.”
“It [the situation] is still uncertain, but I think we’ve avoided a disaster,” Bush said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
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
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
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