There are growing calls in Washington for the US to take a harder line with China that could benefit Taiwan.
US House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower Chairman Randy Forbes has published an article in the National Review titled: “It’s time to rethink how we talk about China.”
Forbes, who is also co-chairman of the Congressional China Caucus, claims that Beijing’s “extravagant” territorial claims and militarized response to its neighbors’ concerns reflect a serious challenge to freedom of the seas.
He said that for years, the US has spoken softly to avoid provoking or antagonizing Beijing.
“It seems that the same Chinese leaders who ruthlessly suppress internal dissent and engage in a systematic campaign of territorial aggrandizement are too sensitive to hear open and honest pronouncements from US officials,” Forbes said.
The mild US reaction comes at the expense of longstanding friends in the region, such as Taiwan, and US values such as human rights and religious liberty, he said.
Forbes repeats arguments he made last month in speeches and congressional comments that the US should react in part to China’s aggression by increasing ties with Taiwan.
“While the US is legally obligated to provide Taiwan the weapons needed to ensure its survival, the US government regularly forces Taipei into a series of small-scale humiliations in the hopes of buying Beijing’s goodwill,” he said.
“The list of indignities imposed upon a close partner in the name of placating China is as long as it is ridiculous,” he added.
At the same time, Politico magazine said that some US naval commanders are at odds with the administration of US President Barack Obama over whether to sail US Navy ships into a disputed area of the South China Sea.
It is a debate that pits some military leaders who want to exercise their freedom of navigation against administration officials and diplomats trying to manage a delicate phase in US-China relations, Politico said.
Writing in The National Interest magazine, American Foreign Policy Council director for Asian security Jeff Smith said: “Today, Washington is confronting the dreadful realization that with each passing year the goals of political liberalization and peaceful integration appear to grow more distant, while the prospect for conflict with China draws nearer.”
A “growing chorus” of US experts is imploring Washington to abandon its informed engagement strategy for a more muscular balancing strategy, Smith wrote.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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