Rebutting Yang Yang Hsieh-hung's (楊憲宏) analysis (US wary of cross-strait peace, June 29, page 8) shows the kind of thinking typical of analysts who simplify history as the ongoing manifestation of US evil-doing. Yang's analysis of the Pentagon report on the PRC's military makes several errors. First, he assumes that the Pentagon claims China will be better-equipped in 20 years because it wants to sell weapons to Taiwan. Yang assumes that a cross-strait peace would be governed by Taiwan's acceptance that it is part of China, but there are no grounds for such an assumption or for assuming that the US believes this will happen. Yang's falls into the trap of assuming that since China does not have the wherewithal to invade Taiwan for the foreseeable future, China won't try. Thus, fear of China must simply be a cover for the US to sell weapons. However, lack of wherewithal has never been a restraint on authoritarian expansionism. Military inferiority did not stop Japan and Germany from making war on the world. The unusual problem is a combination of misjudgement of enemy reactions and domestic political issues. Far from being wary of peace, US policy toward Taiwan has been one of unprincipled aimlessness animated largely by the State Department's fervent wish that it wake up one morning and find that Taiwan has been swallowed by China, or the ocean, either being acceptable. It wants the "Taiwan issue" to disappear so badly that in the recent election US representatives campaigned against Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) knowing that anyone but him would eventually sell the island out. The US does not sell advanced weapons to Taiwan not because it wants tension, but because it knows that advanced weapons would only strengthen Taiwan's bid for independence, creating more headaches for US policymakers. Michael A. Turton
Taipei Yang Hsieh-hung argues that the US has no interest in peace in the Taiwan Strait, because such peace would undermine its weapons sales to Taiwan. To argue that such sales drive American policy shows a lack of understanding not only of US foreign policy, but of the political situation here as well. A huge amount of the world's trade and oil passes right through this area, which in itself pushes the US to support stability. Tipping the balance in either way means war. To suggest that American "preventive diplomacy" works to maintain the current stalemate for arms sales reflects an outdated political science conspiracy thinking. Yang also suggests that "benefits" of peace would include joint force operations of Taiwanese and Chinese air forces, creating a "thorny" issue for the US. Nobody has even considered such a ridiculous scenario. He also lists "living under the `one China' principle" as another benefit of peace, which would "transform" the region. China, an aggressive, insecure power controlling the northern access route to the South China Sea would indeed transform the region, but how it would "benefit" it is a surreal question. Brian Shea
Taipei
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
Small and medium enterprises make up the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, yet large corporations such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) play a crucial role in shaping its industrial structure, economic development and global standing. The company reported a record net profit of NT$374.68 billion (US$11.41 billion) for the fourth quarter last year, a 57 percent year-on-year increase, with revenue reaching NT$868.46 billion, a 39 percent increase. Taiwan’s GDP last year was about NT$24.62 trillion, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, meaning TSMC’s quarterly revenue alone accounted for about 3.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP last year, with the company’s
There is nothing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) could do to stop the tsunami-like mass recall campaign. KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reportedly said the party does not exclude the option of conditionally proposing a no-confidence vote against the premier, which the party later denied. Did an “actuary” like Chu finally come around to thinking it should get tough with the ruling party? The KMT says the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is leading a minority government with only a 40 percent share of the vote. It has said that the DPP is out of touch with the electorate, has proposed a bloated
In an eloquently written piece published on Sunday, French-Taiwanese education and policy consultant Ninon Godefroy presents an interesting take on the Taiwanese character, as viewed from the eyes of an — at least partial — outsider. She muses that the non-assuming and quiet efficiency of a particularly Taiwanese approach to life and work is behind the global success stories of two very different Taiwanese institutions: Din Tai Fung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). Godefroy said that it is this “humble” approach that endears the nation to visitors, over and above any big ticket attractions that other countries may have
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