A Chinese researcher with ties to the Chinese Communist Party yesterday slammed President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies, saying the president should avoid engaging in wishful thinking by seeking to strike a balance in relations between the US, China and Taiwan.
The space for Taiwan to seek benefits from all sides is getting narrower, Xu Bodong (徐博東), a consultant specializing in Taiwanese affairs at Beijing Union University, said in an article published by Xinhua news agency yesterday.
In the article, Xu said Ma had tried to balance issues both in the domestic and international arena.
Domestically, Ma has tried to work out issues between the pan-blue and pan-green camps by saying he wanted to be a “people’s president” and that internationally, Ma had tried to play a balancing game by pushing policies that are “at peace with China, friendly to Japan and close to the US.”
Such a policy of balancing relations to please all sides was not only contradictory, but “dramatically oversteps Taiwan’s own political power,” Xu said.
Xu said Taiwan’s room to maneuver would become smaller in the coming years and it would be difficult for it to continue in that direction.
From the start, Ma’s cross-strait policies have been ill-received by senior government officials in the US and Japan, Xu said.
Beijing, Xu wrote, has repeatedly tried to encourage and cooperate with Ma on his policy of rapprochement in the Taiwan Strait. Despite these measures, “there is some internal discontent and questions [in China] regarding Ma’s policies,” he said, adding that the discord could lead to dangers down the road.
On the alleged souring in Sino-US relations over the arms sale announced by US President Barack Obama last month, Xu said it also had a negative impact on cross-strait relations.
He said that in the long run, Ma’s policies of balancing relations, which he likened to a “game,” were bound to fail, adding that the Ma administration should therefore change its ways.
“Does the Ma administration really want to continue playing this game?” Xu asked.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS