China might be “ramping up” coercive and negative measures against Taiwan, former US assistant secretary of state for East Asia Kurt Campbell said on Tuesday said.
Speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) discussion on US-China relations, he said Taiwan was one of the hardest issues that Washington and Beijing had to deal with.
The discussion, moderated by CBS newsman Bob Schieffer, focused on US-China relations following the summit between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last month.
Campbell indicated he would have liked to see more attention being paid to Taiwan at the summit.
“One of the great achievements, ironically, despite all the tension between the United States and China, is the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Campbell said this was the case even though “it has been one of the hardest issues that the two countries have had to deal with.”
“Neither country can acknowledge that it is extremely successful, but it has been,” he said.
“We are coming into a very different period in Taiwan and I would have liked the United States to underscore that we have a strong commitment to the preservation of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” he said. “Some kind of coercive, negative measures again are ramping up in China because they anticipate a potential change of government in Taiwan.”
Nevertheless, he said that “overall” the Obama-Xi summit was generally positive.
“This was one of those summits that will be judged not by what happens in the meeting itself, but by subsequent activities,” he said.
Campbell asked if the US would be able to sustain the same high level of engagement after the summit.
“Did we brief our allies and bring them into some of these discussions? Did we embed our China strategy in the larger regional framework? Only time will tell,” he said.
He said that Chinese friends spent “an inordinate amount of time” talking about the historical alliance between the US and China against the “marauding Japanese of the 1930s and 1940s.”
While he understood the historical aspects, it tended to “gloss over” 70 years of Japan engaging China and “not firing a shot in anger.”
Campbell said it would be “disastrous” if the US Congress failed to approve the just-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.
Former CIA official and now senior adviser to CSIS Christopher Johnson said that while the TPP was about economics and trade, it was also “a highly geostrategic document as well.”
“It is such an important statement of our credibility and it is what the Asians want to see,” Johnson said. “We are not just a military power, but we are in the game economically.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
RSS