The size of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) victory in Saturday’s elections should induce Beijing to reconsider its hardline stance, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush said.
Bush said the elections — which saw a decisive defeat for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — had a “throw the bums out” flavor.
Reacting to the victory of DPP president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the party’s newly won control of the legislature, Bush said the results were no fluke and occurred because of growing skepticism about engaging with China.
“If Beijing can adjust its strategy and Tsai is willing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) halfway, a mutual accommodation between them is not impossible — but it will not be easy,” he said.
Now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Bush said that future developments would show whether the election results reflected a fundamental shift in political attitudes and not simply dissatisfaction with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies and their consequences.
“A more fundamental shift would not only change the balance of power within Taiwan, but also the continued feasibility of China’s approach to reaching its goal of unification,” Bush said in an analytical essay published on the Brookings Institution’s Web site.
As the election results became known in Washington, praise for Taiwan’s democracy and president-elect Tsai came flooding in from leading members of the US Congress.
Republican presidential hopeful Senator Marco Rubio said Taiwan was charting a democratic course that China might eventually follow.
“This occurs at a time of growing challenges to regional peace and security, due especially to Beijing’s assertiveness in the region,” he said.
“As Dr Tsai settles into her new role, the United States must be prepared to stand by Taiwan to provide moral support, enhance economic links and deepen our political engagement and our security cooperation including additional arms sales in the face of possible Chinese threats and attempts at intimidation,” Rubio said.
US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward Royce released a letter to Tsai, promising that his committee would work toward a strengthened security relationship and the inclusion of Taiwan in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Taiwan had built an economy that punched far above its weight and created the only democracy in the Chinese-speaking world, the committee’s ranking Democrat, Representative Eliot Engel said.
Former committee chairwoman Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen released a letter to Tsai in which she said Taiwan was a “beacon of freedom” in the Pacific.
“In a time of rapid geopolitical change, including an increasingly aggressive and ambitious China, we must redouble our efforts to strengthen our relationship,” she said.
The election results provided the US with a renewed opportunity to “ensure Taiwan is an integral part of the US safety and security network in the region,” committee member Representative Steve Chabot said.
Other statements of support were issued by US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Chairman Matt Salmon, and senior member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Ben Cardin.
The election marked a turning point in domestic Taiwanese politics and also great-power politics, Foreign Policy magazine said.
It said Tsai should appoint a multi-partisan Cabinet reflecting increasingly diverse political demographics and that Taiwan had become one of the most important drivers of change in all of Asia.
Tsai should fend off Chinese bids that threaten economic independence and strengthen Taiwanese industries so that firms do not seek so much outside capital, the magazine said.
Formosan Association for Public Affairs president Peter Chen (陳正義) said that now Tsai had “lit up Taiwan” the nation would “burn as a beacon of freedom and as a model for other countries in Asia.”
Several experts on the US’ Asia policy speculated about the strength of Washington’s defense commitment to Taiwan.
Law professor Julian Ku addressed the debate on Saturday in the journal Lawfare.
“Ultimately, the core of any security guarantee is not legal obligation, but political will,” he said.
“Legally speaking, Taiwan lacks an ironclad US security guarantee against attack by China, but this is true for just about everyone else as well — including NATO,” Ku said. “Whether the US will come to the defense of Taiwan or any other country is largely contingent on questions of diplomacy, military facts and political will.”
“Hopefully, Taiwan’s new president understands this,” he said.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS