US ‘all talk’ on Taiwan
The US has stated its interest in cross-strait relations. However, I would submit that the policies of the current US administration have not contributed to stability in the Taiwan Strait in that they weakened Taiwan’s defensive capabilities. To put it bluntly, the US has been “all talk and no do.”
Whereas the Pentagon has a genuine concern for Taiwan, I doubt that concern is replicated by US President Barack Obama’s administration, which seems to favor an appeasement approach where China and Taiwan are concerned, possibly indicating a belief on Obama’s part that Taiwan is expendable. Thankfully, it is a view not held by all members of his party or by any Republicans.
All this raises questions about future regional relations. The US is likely to act in what it perceives as its own best interests.
One would hope that Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines could submerge their relatively minor differences and cooperate on a meaningful defense strategy for the region. Such an alliance would be a formidable deterrent to Communist Chinese expansionism. It would also be helpful if these nations admitted the obvious; that the fictional “one China” policy is a hindrance to cooperation and should be discarded.
Gavan Duffy
Australia
Hung’s words are inaccurate
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said the KMT “led its people to victory in the eight-year war of resistance against Japan.”
Defeating Japan was a joint effort of the KMT, former Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) communists and the Allies. Japan left China after they surrendered, which was after the US dropped its nuclear bombs. One could argue it was actually the US that defeated Japan and drove it out of China. In fact, US General Joseph Stilwell, known as “Vinegar Joe,” who read and spoke Mandarin fluently and commanded Chinese troops, said of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石): “China’s problem is that its leader is an illiterate superstitious peasant.”
Hung said the KMT “raised Taiwan from the wretched colony it was.”
It was wrong for Japan to occupy Taiwan. It was right for Japan to leave Taiwan. However, while here, Japan built railroads and electrified the island. Taiwan was not a wretched colony. The KMT was another foreign occupier who imposed the White Terror era on Taiwan. The difference between the KMT and Japan is that Japan left and the KMT has become a part of Taiwan.
Hung said the KMT “headed the Taiwanese economic miracle, helped the nation win worldwide respect through its democracy and consolidated cross-strait peace.”
Taiwan’s democracy and economic miracle are a result of the work of opposition activists and their supporters that the KMT imprisoned during the White Terror era. The KMT eventually enacted policies that improved Taiwan’s economy and brought free democratic multiparty elections because they saw the writing on the wall. They knew that the people of Taiwan would eventually rise up against the KMT.
Hung said “the biggest threats are egregious political infighting and populism, which have stalled Taiwan’s development, incited disorder, disrupted society and left people baffled.”
Populism is democracy. Disorder, disruption and chaos are all inherent in a democratic society; they are inherent to freedom. Taking away people’s rights in order to prevent disorder and disruption is what the People’s Republic of China has touted since the KMT left China. Hung sounds like a Chinese communist.
Andres Chang
Taipei
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