The severance of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and the Dominican Republic can help Taiwanese better understand cross-strait relations and might also be conducive for forging a Taiwan-centric consensus on the issue of independent sovereignty, an academic said yesterday.
“The suspension of diplomatic ties with the Dominican Republic could turn out to be a good thing for Taiwan, because it could help clarify the relationship between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Taiwan Foundation for Democracy vice president Yan Jiann-fa (顏建發) said at a seminar in Taipei.
“People who harbored unrealistic expectations regarding China should have gained a better understanding,” Yan said. “There is no need to have fantasies about cross-strait ties, which simply cannot be achieved unilaterally by Taiwan.”
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Taiwan has chosen to side with the “alliance,” which is led by the US and includes Europe and Japan, at a time when competition has erupted between China and the US, he said.
What Taiwan should do now is to strengthen itself and diversify its risk by reaching out to the rest of the world and walking away from the framework established by China, Yan said.
In the face of pressure from China, maintaining the “status quo” is the best scenario that can be visualized in cross-strait relations, he added.
Taiwan should also turn its sights on the global picture instead of looking only at China, “unless Beijing one day begins internal reform,” he said.
Another academic, National Taiwan Normal University professor Fan Shih-ping (范世平), expressed a similar view, saying that the severance of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and the Dominican Republic would only make Taiwan stronger and push it closer to the US and Japan.
“Although it was regrettable, the development will have no effect on Taiwanese,” Fan said.
“The number of diplomatic allies carries some symbolic significance, but does not mean anything substantial to Taiwanese, given the limited amount of bilateral trade and commercial ties,” Fan said.
China will continue its efforts to lure Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, but Taiwanese have become used to China’s bullying tactics and are not ruffled by them, he said.
Beijing’s actions will only serve to stir up antagonism among Taiwanese toward China, and make President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) more resilient in her leadership of Taiwan, he added.
As Taiwan and the US prepare to hold their annual defense industry conference this month — in Taiwan for the first time in 16 years — China timed its diplomatic move to show Chinese that it can punish Taiwan and the US, and to bolster internal unity around Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Fan said.
The termination of formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the Dominican Republic on Monday has left Taiwan with only 19 diplomatic allies, including the Vatican and others in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
RSS