A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator over the weekend renewed his call for the government to redeploy marines to Taiping Island (太平島) in the South China Sea, where the Coast Guard Administration is now stationed, because territorial claims over the area by neighboring countries have grown louder recently.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said a stronger military presence there would strengthen the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ stance once negotiations begin to settle disputed claims.
The Coast Guard Administration has been stationed on Taiping Island since marines pulled out in 1999.
Since early this year, the marines have been helping to train coast guard personnel, but Lin said the government should take stronger action to beef up its defense capability.
“You cannot show weakness in diplomatic negotiations,” he said.
In response, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Lo Shao-ho (羅紹和) said the question of increasing the military presence on the Spratly Islands islet should be viewed from a national security standpoint, rather than from a ministry perspective.
At present, only the coast guard and staff at a weather station are based on Taiping Island. The coast guard members have received training in defending their positions, stopping assaults and making arrests, ministry data shows.
China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea or the whole area. Between July last year and last Friday, Taiwan issued five statements reiterating its claims and calling for joint efforts to develop the natural resources in the area.
Lin said sooner or later talks would begin among all the parties concerned to negotiate a settlement to the dispute. At that time, he said, “military strength” would be needed as a bargaining chip.
Former deputy minister of national defense Lin Chong-pin (林中斌) said that in spite of the increasingly tense situation, China would likely stick to its “struggle but not go to war” strategy.
China’s domestic politics do not allow its leaders to show weakness in foreign policy, but the urgency of the country’s economic development, as seen in its 12th five-year plan, will likely restrain Chinese leaders from allowing the situation to get out of control, said Lin Chong-pin, now a professor of strategic studies at Tamkang University.
He forecast that when China begins to tap into the oil and natural gas resources in the South China Sea, it would probably invite neighboring countries to participate in the development process.
Lin Chong-pin said Taiwan should step up scientific research in that area and seek international cooperation to share the natural resources.
However, next year’s presidential election and the complex triangular relationship between Taiwan, China and the US will make it difficult for the Taiwanese government to take any initiative in the South China Sea, he said.
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