Unlike its usual prompt response to US officials’ and congressional members’ show of support for Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has reacted with restraint and discretion to calls by a group of US Republican senators for Tsai to visit Washington and address the US Congress.
Such a step would no doubt be a high point in Taiwan-US relations since the two nations severed diplomatic ties in 1979. The question is, would it be worth the backlash that it would certainly engender from China?
When the idea of inviting Tsai to address the US Congress was first proposed early last month by Joseph Bosco, former China country director in the office of the US secretary of defense, in an opinion piece published in the The Hill, former American Institute in Taiwan director William Stanton — who has been a firm Taiwan supporter — was quick to question the benefits of such a move.
“If we are going to provoke China, it should be [for something] of lasting importance to Taiwan. I think that is the view of many people,” Stanton said.
He also urged Tsai to carefully weigh the pros and cons of such a visit.
Stanton made a good point. While such a visit would send a strong signal to the world that Taiwan and the US are closer than ever, the benefits would mostly be symbolic.
By contrast, it makes more sense to risk upsetting Beijing over the signing of a free-trade agreement between Taipei and Washington — an idea that has been thrown around a lot since late last year, including by Stanton at a forum in Taipei in December — as the economic benefits Taiwan could gain from the deal would most likely outweigh the potential retaliation from an angry China.
However, it does not mean that moves that are mostly symbolic are not worthwhile and should be avoided altogether. The majority of supportive measures taken by US officials and congressional members since 1979 are largely symbolic and have yet to translate into actual progress in bilateral relations.
For example, expectations were high when the Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages mutual visits by high-level Taiwanese and US officials, was signed into law in March last year, but they faded quickly after the public realized that the act is more recommendatory rather than mandatory, and that the US officials who visited Taiwan since then are similar in ranking to those who visited before the act’s enactment.
Although the lack of actual progress over the years has upset many who are hoping that closer Taiwan-US ties could help elevate Taiwan’s international status, it is risky to let emotions take over in the current political climate.
Sometimes symbolic moves are all that can be done and while they do not always translate into actual change, they nonetheless indicate a strong bilateral willingness to improve ties.
As Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of North American Affairs Director-General Vincent Yao (姚金祥) said at a news conference on Tuesday, while it is his ultimate goal to see high-level US and Taiwanese officials visit each other freely and without restrictions, it is unlikely at the moment and that is why he has to deal with the issue with pragmatism.
Improving ties takes time and patience, especially for an unrecognized country that is up against a giant, unpredictable neighbor.
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