Taiwan’s military and economic strategic significance should not be underestimated as cross-strait relations have a serious impact not only in Asia, but the rest of the world, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton said in Taipei yesterday.
China is interested in Taiwan because of its geographic location in the first island chain, a key region for Chinese military projection and a strategically important area close to the East China Sea and the South China Sea, Stanton said.
China is interested in taking Taiwan because of “where it is, not what it is,” Stanton said, adding that Taiwan’s east coast also provides access to the Pacific for China’s submarines.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Stanton, who now lives in Taiwan as a permanent resident and serves as director of National Tsing Hua University’s Center for Asia Policy, delivered the speech at a forum organized by the Thinking Taiwan Foundation, which was founded by former Democratic Progressive Party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The retired US diplomat encouraged Taiwan to integrate itself with its trading partners by joining regional economic agreements and to reach out to improve its relations with other countries so it would not be overdependent on China’s economy.
Stanton said it is “less likely” that Washington would assist Taiwan in the wake of a Chinese invasion, but as long as the consensus is maintaining the “status quo,” the cross-strait situation would not change.
The former director said the US has not been using Taiwan as a bargaining chip in its engagements with China and that Washington would not “just walk away,” but it is imperative for Taiwan to continue to have maximum contacts with officials in Washington.
Stanton declined to comment on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) comments on Thursday, in which he described cross-strait relations as “not international relations.”
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS