US academics yesterday highlighted the role of Taiwan in the White House's foreign policy, saying Taiwan's interests were “not negotiable” in the shaping of US policy on China.
Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based policy research and advocacy organization, told a forum that “the bilateral relationship between the US and Taiwan is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world.”
That is because “both countries [Taiwan and the US] play critical roles in the biggest issue that is facing the world in this century — and that is the emergence of China,” Lilly said.
To influence China to develop in a direction that is beneficial to its people and the world, Lilly said the US and Taiwan should enhance cultural, economic and diplomatic relations, as well as work together to maintain a military balance in the Taiwan Strait.
“Military balance in the Strait should not move significantly in either direction. Taiwan should not seek and the US should not provide weapons that would do more than preserve the balance,” he said.
Lilly said weapons that are vital to Taiwan should be provided without politics and should be agreed to without being used as bargaining chips to negotiate with China on other issues.
Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the center, said the US would not do anything that would undermine the interests of Taiwan as they are “not negotiable.”
Taiwan developing into an information technology hub would contribute to making it indispensable in the world, where soft power and new alliances are becoming increasingly more important than geographic location, said Michael Werz, another senior fellow at the center.
Werz said Taiwan could increase the value of what it contributes to the international system if it could make itself a close, competent and critical research hub about everything that happens in China.
The academics were part of a forum discussing US President Barack Obama's foreign policies organized by the American Cultural Center at the American Institute in Taiwan.
Asked about Taiwan's role in US policy on China, Lilly said it was difficult for the US to think about its relationship with China without thinking about its relationship with Taiwan.
“It's impossible to disentwine US policy in China from US policy in Taiwan. They are of the same parcel,” Lilly said, adding that the US’ relationship with Taiwan was a real test for China in terms of how it moves forward.
Korb said US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' recent reaffirmation of the US stance on arms sales to Taiwan amid Chinese opposition provided the best answer to the question.
On the imminent signing of a cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), Sabine Dewan, associate director of international economic policy at the center, said: “It's important to consider the positive and apprehensions that people might have of [an] ECFA and think about where Taiwan would be if this agreement were not brokered.”
“Trade is really one of the ways that we relate to other countries in this transforming global economic landscape. There is no going back. Protectionism is not a possibility anymore,” she said.
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