German warships could be sent through the Taiwan Strait to challenge Beijing’s claims over international waterways, which would mark a departure of Germany’s decades-long non-confrontation policy, US media outlet Politico’s European branch said yesterday.
German officials last week confirmed, after discussing the issue with the German Federal Ministry of Defense, that such plans were being considered, said an article by John Vinocur, former executive editor and vice president of the International Herald Tribune.
Should the administration of German Chancellor Angela Merkel go ahead with the plan, Germany would be challenging the French opinion that Germany is running a “non-combat army” while openly backing allies, Vinocur said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, the plan would be provocative to those in Germany who favor non-aggression, he said.
Vinocur cited as examples of Germany’s reluctance to engage in conflicts the withdrawal of its navy from the combat zone during the Libyan intervention in 2011, caveats on its troop deployments in Afghanistan and its decision not to directly participate in attacks on the Islamic State group in Syria — unlike its NATO neighbors Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and France.
Reasons to go ahead with the plan would include improving US-German relations — especially after a recently announced six-month suspension to US tariffs on German vehicles — and one-upping France, which claims to have the only functioning military in the EU, Vinocur said.
France in April sent a frigate through the Taiwan Strait, which was shadowed by the Chinese military and resulted in Beijing lodging official protests with Paris regarding its “illegal passage” through the waterway.
Later that month, the US dispatched two destroyers through the Taiwan Strait, which a US official said demonstrated “the US’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
While Vinocur applauded some elements in Germany’s military for attempting to challenge the slight on the country for a “hide-under-the-bed routine,” he said that the chances of the Merkel administration going ahead with the plan “are not overwhelmingly promising.”
“Germany is politically riven to the state of instability,” Vinocur said, citing Merkel’s “paralytic” coalition with the Social Democratic Party being likely to dissolve and the growth of popularity of the Green Party.
Merkel’s chosen successor, Christian Democratic Union leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, is increasingly unpopular with the German public, Vinocur said, citing a poll last week showing that 70 percent of Germans think she is not up to the task.
Economically, Germany is looking at a 0.6 percent fall in GDP, with no signs of improvement next year, he said, citing Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce reports.
Against that backdrop, launching a naval operation in the Taiwan Strait would be a groundbreaking, but unfamiliar act of valor that would first require the German Navy to get that far, he added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS