President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday attributed the nation’s recent “diplomatic breakthroughs” to Beijing’s commitment to “soft power,” a term coined by a US academic who was visiting Taiwan.
Since he came into office in 2008, Ma said he had committed himself to improving cross-strait relations and seeking peace and prosperity.
“Mainland China is also developing its soft power,” he said. “I guess both sides must have some kind of consensus so we can see a glimpse of light in cross-strait peace.”
PHOTO: CNA
The two sides have been doing their best to avoid war and pursue peace via economy and culture, which are similar to the concept of soft power, he said.
Ma made the remarks while meeting Joseph Nye Jr at the Presidential Office in the morning. Nye, in Taiwan for a two-day visit at the invitation of the Global Views Educational Foundation, gave a talk at the Presidential Office and attended a forum entitled “The Powers to Lead” in the afternoon.
During the morning talk, Nye said power has three dimensions: military, economic and soft power.
Despite talk that the rising China is likely to overtake the US by 2030, Nye said he thought it was hard to see China equal the US in military and soft power even if it were equal in size with the US in economic power.
In military power, Nye said China was unlikely to surpass the US in the next two decades, because the US was far ahead, with about half the world’s military expenditure.
In terms of soft power, Nye said China was making major investments through the Confucius Institutes and massive broadcasting projects via global cable TV channels.
However, China has not been getting a good return on its investment, because every time it imprisons someone like Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), it wastes the billions of dollars it has invested in broadcasting.
“China will never be able to develop soft power to full capacity until it is willing to change its political system,” Nye said.
Nye said power in the 21st century could be thought of as a 3D chessboard. At the top is the military, where the world is unipolar, with the US reigning supreme. The middle board represents the economic sphere, where the world is multipolar. At the bottom is transnational relations and soft power, which are chaotically distributed, he said.
Nye asked how we should deal with China, the world’s second-largest economy. The answer, he said, lies in smart strategies that combine both hard and soft power.
Nye said Taiwan was well on its way to implementing such a smart power strategy. On the one hand, Taiwan must have sufficient military strength; on the other, Taiwan’s ultimate protection lies in its relations with the US, which depends heavily on Taiwan’s soft power, he said.
“Sometimes people will say: ‘Would the Americans make a deal and sell out Taiwan for something that they want from China?’” Nye said.
“The answer is as long as Taiwan stands for democracy and human rights, that will be impossible in American political culture,” he said.
Another dimension to Taiwan’s soft power are the changes occurring inside China, Nye said. Although the changes were not occurring very fast at the top, they certainly were at lower levels, he said.
Nye said he supported the Ma administration’s plan to allow Chinese to study in Taiwan, calling it a good investment and exercise of soft power by which to change the minds of young Chinese.
Nye also praised Ma’s “courage” for saying that Beijing was wrong to incarcerate Liu, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for advocating political freedom in China. Such a move dramatized what Taiwan stands for and helps enhance its soft power, he said.
On WikiLeaks, Nye said it was a good example of the way an individual or group of individuals can affect government, a new dimension he called “cyber power.”
Calling the impact “embarrassing, but not devastating,” Nye said WikiLeaks had done some damage, but not as much as people thought, as the most important secrets had not been touched.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS