The Wall Street Journal has published an op-ed article by Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, calling for Taiwan to be admitted to international organizations.
“By any reasonable criteria, Taiwan, which is among the world’s 25 largest economies and a demonstrably good international citizen, should be a participant,” Roy wrote.
He says Beijing exhibits “petty and self-defeating” behavior, -exercising an effective veto to keep Taiwan out.”
It is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy to deny Taiwan “international space” and pressure Taiwanese to politically unify with China, Roy said.
“Beijing has played such games for years, and it is long past time for a rethink both by Beijing and by the foreign governments who play along,” he said. “Recent improvements in cross-Strait relations should spur Beijing to ease its resistance.”
The attack on China’s tactics comes as the US House of Representatives is demanding action on legislation that would push China to let its currency appreciate.
“China’s Taiwan obstructionism is unfair to Taiwan’s 23 million inhabitants, who are innocent pawns in Beijing’s ploy to restrict Taiwan’s autonomy,” Roy wrote.
“The mainland is using low-level coercion against Taiwan’s people by making them international second-class citizens,” he wrote.
According to top US officials, the administration of US President Barack Obama is currently looking for ways to improve Taiwan’s chances of gaining entrance to international organizations.
Roy called for international pressure to help push Taiwan into the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework on Climate Change.
“The Chinese leadership should stop obstructing Taiwan from playing its natural and necessary role in meeting global challenges by joining international organizations focused on specific, practical issues,” he said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to