In the past when Taiwan's diplomatic personnel returned to Taipei for routine consultations, they behaved as if they were vacationing. They wined and dined, filling up their stomachs while emptying out their heads, before going abroad again. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently changed this practice. The ministry rounded up all of its diplomats back in town for routine consultations and herded them into one-week seminars. The diplomats heard some tough talk from Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Chen Shih-meng (
Diplomacy is challenging work to begin with. Due to Taiwan's unique circumstances, enhanced flexibility is needed. But the foreign ministry is plagued by conservativism. Personnel who came up through the ranks under the KMT administration have proven to be stumbling blocks to the DPP's diplomatic efforts. Given that the bulk of the diplomats' work overseas involves dealing with visitors from Taiwan, newcomers quickly lose their enthusiasm. How can individuals with this kind of morale and mentality handle the intensive diplomatic combat needed to counteract China's efforts to constrain Taiwan?
Two years ago the people chose a new navigator, who has taken the country in a new direction. But the ministry's personnel have not kept pace. As a result, the Presidential Office is bypassing the ministry and giving the responsibility for overseeing some foreign affairs to the National Security Council. Actually, the Chen administration is following former president Lee Teng-hui's (
Breaking down the out-dated foreign-affairs mentality is key for the DPP. China is central to Taiwan's diplomacy. Chen Shih-meng's statement that "the two sides of Taiwan Strait are not Siamese twins, but fraternal twins" neatly summed up the historical ties and the independent sovereignties of the two sides of the Strait. His comment should also serve as a wake-up call to those diplomatic personnel blinded by the "Great China" myth.
Given the disparity in their sizes, Taiwan will surely lose out to China under traditional rules. So any hope of victory can only come through unconventional means, the kind of street-fighting strategy the DPP used to beat the KMT. Chiou was the mastermind of the those strategies. He advocates an offensive strategy, more overseas travel by senior ministers -- who face less restrictions than the president, vice president or premier -- and standing up for Taiwan's rights. Only through such methods can Taiwan avoid the kind of bullying it has been subjected to at APEC and the UN in the past.
But an even more fundamental problem hampering diplomacy is a lack of agreement on a national identity and the unification-independence debate. Taiwan's political parties have all demonstrated an inability to place national interests above their own. PFP Chairman James Soong (
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
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