Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to Europe has further highlighted the changing world order, especially the relations between China, the US and the EU. It speaks of an audacious, long-term plan by Beijing on the same scale as the US’ post-war hegemonic rise.
These shifts involve issues of national security, international trade and media manipulation, and will have an impact on Taiwan’s security.
US protectionism under the administration of US President Donald Trump is causing jitters among traditional US allies and competitors alike. This is pushing the EU and China closer, or at least accelerating a process that China’s rise has made all but inevitable.
Days after Xi signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that saw Italy embrace his Belt and Road Initiative, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the Chinese leader to Paris.
Macron conspicuously invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to his meeting with Xi to put a united face on the proceedings, compared with the country-to-country meeting between Xi and Conte.
Despite Macron’s reservations on issues of trade openness and human rights violations with China, and his caution about joining any Belt and Road Initiative projects, the scale of the trade agreements signed between France and China vastly outstripped those detailed in the Xi-Conte deal. France and China signed 15 contracts, including a 300-airplane order from Airbus, alone worth 30 billion euros (US$33.83 billion).
Within the context of the US-China trade dispute and the issues facing US plane maker Boeing, the huge Airbus contract speaks volumes. It is not mere economics; it is part of a realignment of international trade. The EU will benefit. For China, the implications are part of its strategy to become a world superpower.
Another part of this strategy is the control of perceptions of China in the media, the subject of a report released on Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders, China’s Pursuit of a New World Media Order. The report ties China’s attempts to dominate international media with the Belt and Road Initiative. Both programs are working toward the same end: hegemonic dominance of the international order to rival that of the US.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday criticized Beijing for trying to distort reporting on the Xi-Conte meeting, translating a part in the signed communique confirming Italy’s continued adherence to the “one China” policy to say that Italy now follows the “one China” principle.
The two are not the same thing. The mistranslation is another example of Beijing’s attempts to subtly shift the goal posts to affect international perceptions of cross-strait relations.
Taiwan can take a certain amount of reassurance from the Trump administration’s relatively vocal support. This is part and parcel of a harder stance against Beijing and other traditional allies, but this same stance is pushing Beijing and the EU together, which is concerning in itself.
In the Heartland Theory submitted to the Royal Geographical Society in 1904, Halford Mackinder argued that control over Eurasia — what he called the “World Island” — would eventually lead to world domination. US naval historian and strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that control over the seas meant control over the world.
Beijing has a long way to go before it can challenge the US in terms of economic and maritime power. China’s one-party system means that it can quite happily play the long game.
China has successfully held its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, with 53 of 55 countries from the African Union (AU) participating. The two countries that did not participate were Eswatini and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which have no diplomatic relations with China. Twenty-four leaders were reported to have participated. Despite African countries complaining about summit fatigue, with recent summits held with Russia, Italy, South Korea, the US and Indonesia, as well as Japan next month, they still turned up in large numbers in Beijing. China’s ability to attract most of the African leaders to a summit demonstrates that it is still being
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday was handcuffed and escorted by police to the Taipei Detention Center, after the Taipei District Court ordered that he be detained and held incommunicado for suspected corruption during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the same court on Monday last week that ordered Ko’s release without bail. That decision was appealed by prosecutors on Wednesday, leading the High Court to conclude that Ko had been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and it ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Video clips
The Russian city of Vladivostok lies approximately 45km from the Sino-Russian border on the Sea of Japan. The area was not always Russian territory: It was once the site of a Chinese settlement. The settlement would later be known as Yongmingcheng (永明城), the “city of eternal light,” during the Yuan Dynasty. That light was extinguished in 1858 when a large area of land was ceded by the Qing Dynasty to the Russian Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Aigun. The People’s Republic of China founded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan. Taiwan was governed by the
The Japanese-language Nikkei Shimbun on Friday published a full-page story calling for Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership hopefuls to be aware of and to prepare for a potential crisis in the Taiwan Strait. The candidates of the LDP leadership race must have a “vision” in case of a Chinese invasion in Taiwan, the article said, adding that whether the prospective president of the LDP and the future prime minister of Japan have the ability to lead the public and private sectors under this circumstance would be examined in the coming election. The “2027 Theory” of a Taiwan contingency is becoming increasingly
RSS