Taiwan needs to do more to sell itself to the world, for example by publicizing its achievements in various fields and calling attention to China’s bullying in international media, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton said.
He made the remark at a forum in Taipei yesterday when asked how Taiwan should respond to China’s threats in Beijing’s bid to becoming a global hegemony.
“I think you need to undertake much more imaginative public relations with the international community versus what is advocated to people in government,” Stanton said at the forum on Taiwan-US-China relations hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁).
Photo courtesy of William Stanton
The government could take out full-page advertisements in major newspapers, such as the New York Times, to remind people of what Taiwan has accomplished, he said.
“Taiwan has moved from poverty to prosperity and from a military dictatorship to one of the strongest democracies in the world in just more than 30 years,” Stanton said.
“You rank fourth globally on the Programme for International Student Assessment,” he said. “You rank higher than the US in press freedom and higher than many European countries in academic freedom. You are also ranked one of the safest places in the world, both in terms of countries and cities.”
However, most people he had spoken with do not recognize how high Taiwan ranks in those fields, he added.
“Remind people of what’s at stake if you become just another part of the People’s Republic of China and you wind up like Hong Kong. Remind people of what you’ve achieved on your own. Make the case for why you are important and why the world should care about you,” Stanton said.
Citing as an example threats of a Chinese boycott against Taiwanese coffee bakery chain 85°C (85度C) because an employee at one of its US branches “asked President Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文] to sign a pillow,” Stanton said the government should respond to such bullying tactics by running full-page editorials in international media explaining the overtures it has made over the past few years, the offers for reasonable conversations and the responses from China to try to bully Taiwanese.
He also cited China’s pressuring of Taiwanese K-pop idol Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) in 2016 into issuing an apology for briefly holding up a Republic of China flag on a South Korean variety TV show; its attempt to bar a Taiwanese student from attending a model UN meeting in New York; and Beijing driving away two Fisheries Agency officials at a 2016 UN Food and Agriculture Organization Committee on Fisheries meeting in Rome “because Taiwan is not a country,” saying that all such bullying against Taiwan deserves the attention of the international community.
“There’s many ways in which you can portray yourselves in the positive light you deserve,” Stanton said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a