Friday marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) in the US. Over the last three decades, the TRA has greatly contributed to Taiwan’s security, peace across the Taiwan Strait and the development of democracy and freedom in Taiwan.
However, the US stance has never caused China to change its plan to annex Taiwan and as China’s strength grows, it continues to advance its unification agenda and expand its political, economic and national security threats against Taiwan
The cross-strait “status quo” has changed since the government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to power on May 20 last year. These changes have come about because Ma and his administration fail to see the severe ramifications that losing national sovereignty will have on Taiwan. The government sees China as the only way to save Taiwan’s economy and thinks that Taiwan will experience economic growth if they just keep relaxing China policies.
There are many doubts and concerns in Taiwan about what an economic cooperation agreement framework between Taiwan and China would actually entail. Many people oppose it and there are increasingly widespread calls for a referendum on the matter.
However, the government insists that Taiwan will not be marginalized and that national sovereignty will not be affected if the government does sign such an agreement with China. This lopsided policy toward China not only sends the wrong message to the international community by saying that Taiwan accepts China’s position, it also pushes Taiwan further down the road to “peaceful unification” with China. It causes more of Taiwan’s sovereignty to be swallowed up by China just as China swallows up more of Taiwan’s economic resources. Under these circumstances, Taiwan’s future will be under China’s total control.
The TRA emphasizes Taiwan’s security, which contributes to peace and security in the Western Pacific region and is inextricably linked to US interests.
However, the Ma administration is still leaning heavily toward China and ignoring the threats to Taiwan’s national security as China increases its military power and international influence.
This reckless attitude has caused changes to the fundamental structure of trilateral relations between Taiwan, the US and China.
After 30 years of the TRA, any developments will influence these relations and will also have serious ramifications for Taiwan’s future. The TRA will be a great challenge to the diplomatic policies of US President Barack Obama and his administration.
Taiwan’s future must be decided by the 23 million people of Taiwan and at this critical historical juncture, we have to ask ourselves whether we have made the necessary preparations for any of the possible developments.
These are serious issues that we must not ignore and must handle with great care.
Chen Lung-chu is president of the Taiwan New Century Foundation.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017