In his op-ed piece in the Taipei Times (“Reading the political winds: the case for discretion,” Aug. 13, page 6), research fellow Ryan Hass of the Brookings Institution in Washington said: “Now is not the time for Taiwan to employ megaphone diplomacy to press the United States to do more on its behalf. The more Taiwan draws public attention to its appeals, the less it might like the response it receives.”
The term “megaphone diplomacy” is not often seen, but whether it is suitable to describe President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) diplomatic ideals and actions requires clarification.
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines “megaphone diplomacy” as “the practice of making strong or threatening statements in order to make another country do what you want.”
Based on this definition, US President Donald Trump is very adept at such diplomacy. From his handling of the North Korean nuclear crisis to the trade war with China and US sanctions on Iran, Trump has applied “maximum pressure” on others, forcing them to make concessions.
Since Tsai took office, she has attempted to maintain the “status quo” and control risk in the Taiwan Strait without humbling herself or being arrogant.
Although several diplomatic allies have severed ties with Taiwan, international airlines have been pressured to list Taiwan as part of China, Taichung’s right to host the East Asian Youth Games next year has been revoked, and Chinese fighter jets and warships repeatedly conduct military exercises around Taiwan, Tsai has maintained a low profile and handled the situation calmly and pragmatically, without making mistakes or dancing to Beijing’s tune.
Maintaining the “status quo” is at the heart of her cross-strait policy.
Although many criticize Tsai as being too weak or passive, it is unarguable that Taiwan has made progress in practical economic, trade and security relations with the US, Japan and European countries.
To be specific, Japan’s representative office in Taipei has been renamed the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, and the US Congress has passed the Taiwan Travel Act and the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019.
Today, it is China that is the notorious breaker of the “status quo” due to its oppression and containment of Taiwan, while Taiwan has received unprecedented international sympathy and support.
Some members of the US Congress are pushing for friendly initiatives, such as joint military drills between Taiwan and the US. This is not because Taiwan initiated the idea, but is rather a reflection of the mainstream consensus in Washington that the US no longer has any illusions about Beijing.
As confrontation between the two powers continues to grow, the scale of international politics is tilting in favor of Taiwan’s 23 million people.
In 2002, in response to China’s poaching of Taiwan’s South Pacific ally Nauru, then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) claimed that “there is one country on each side” of the Taiwan Strait.
As a result, tension mounted in the relationships between Taiwan, China and the US, and Chen was seen as a “troublemaker” by then-US president George W. Bush’s administration. Tsai, who was serving as Mainland Affairs Council minister, was sent as Chen’s envoy to Washington to clean up the mess.
Taiwan might be a beneficiary of Trump’s megaphone diplomacy, but Tsai is has definitely not initiated such diplomacy.
Chen Yung-chang is deputy secretary-general of the Taipei Chamber of Commerce.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Jan. 1 marks a decade since China repealed its one-child policy. Just 10 days before, Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), who long oversaw the often-brutal enforcement of China’s family-planning rules, died at the age of 96, having never been held accountable for her actions. Obituaries praised Peng for being “reform-minded,” even though, in practice, she only perpetuated an utterly inhumane policy, whose consequences have barely begun to materialize. It was Vice Premier Chen Muhua (陳慕華) who first proposed the one-child policy in 1979, with the endorsement of China’s then-top leaders, Chen Yun (陳雲) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), as a means of avoiding the
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
The last foreign delegation Nicolas Maduro met before he went to bed Friday night (January 2) was led by China’s top Latin America diplomat. “I had a pleasant meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi (邱小琪), Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Venezuela’s soon-to-be ex-president tweeted on Telegram, “and we reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas for building a multipolar world of development and peace.” Judging by how minutely the Central Intelligence Agency was monitoring Maduro’s every move on Friday, President Trump himself was certainly aware of Maduro’s felicitations to his Chinese guest. Just
RSS