An opinion piece in the Taipei Times by a National Open University law lecturer tried to conceal the writer’s pro-unification pretensions with an appeal to “peace,” but its argument was so upended, the logic so confused, that he completely misrepresented the relations between the US, China and Taiwan (“Taiwan is in between Washington and Beijing," Jan. 1, page 8).
To realize his goal of implementing “one country, two systems” in Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is expanding Beijing’s military capability, building military bases in the South China Sea, sending fighter jets over the Taiwan Strait median line, and increasingly conducting military drills in the South and East China seas.
Taking Taiwan is the sole objective of Beijing’s Taiwan policy, but Taiwan is a sovereign, independent nation and the vast majority of Taiwanese oppose unification with China. Faced with the threat of invasion, Taiwan’s most important task is strengthening its cooperation with the US.
Many pro-China individuals, suspicious of the US, believe that if Taiwan gets too close to the US, it might get caught in the cross-fire between the US and China. The reverse is true.
To warn China not to do anything to alter the “status quo” and to maintain the balance of power in the Western Pacific region, the US last year sent a strike group of three aircraft carriers to patrol the region, and show its ability and resolve to maintain security in the Asia-Pacific and the Strait, all to prevent Beijing from making any hasty moves.
It is China’s bellicosity, its intent to annex Taiwan and threaten peace in the Asia-Pacific region that have led to a worsening in US-China ties. It is the dire situation in which Taiwan finds itself, that has necessitated this intervention by the US. How can the writer turn the situation completely on its head and suggest that, with US-Sino relations deteriorating, Taiwan might get caught in the middle?
Given the crucial nature of Taiwan’s geopolitical location to the Indo-Pacific strategy, its exemplary response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its importance in the global semiconductors supply chain, if Taiwan is lost, the US would not only see its defense of the first island chain and of its Indo-Pacific strategy disintegrate, it would also be announcing to the whole world that the democratic system is inferior to socialist authoritarianism — a huge blow to the development of democratic societies and human civilization since the Industrial Revolution two centuries ago.
The US is opposing China and protecting Taiwan to defend democracy and human civilization, and because of Taiwan’s strategic location. How can the writer say that Taiwan is being used as a “bargaining chip” against China, or that Washington is somehow using Taiwan to “needle” Beijing?
Faced with invasion, if Taiwan is not to rely on the US, then on whom should it rely? And how is it that Taiwan is somehow “caught between the US and China”?
The US has passed Taiwan-friendly legislation such as the Taiwan Travel Act to bolster bilateral relations and improve Taiwan’s ability to defend itself. US politicians on both sides of the aisle understand that the “one China” policy has run its course and can no longer be used to maintain cross-strait peace, and that the US needs to apply the room for maneuvering within this strategy to assist Taiwan via every available channel.
How can the writer say the US has “blown a hole” in the “one China” principle and left Taiwan with no way out? Presumably the writer would prefer to see Taiwan take on China unaided, and become swallowed whole.
Michael Lin is a retired diplomat who served in the US.
Translated by Paul Cooper
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
Behind the gloating, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must be letting out a big sigh of relief. Its powerful party machine saved the day, but it took that much effort just to survive a challenge mounted by a humble group of active citizens, and in areas where the KMT is historically strong. On the other hand, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must now realize how toxic a brand it has become to many voters. The campaigners’ amateurism is what made them feel valid and authentic, but when the DPP belatedly inserted itself into the campaign, it did more harm than good. The
US President Donald Trump’s alleged request that Taiwanese President William Lai (賴清德) not stop in New York while traveling to three of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, after his administration also rescheduled a visit to Washington by the minister of national defense, sets an unwise precedent and risks locking the US into a trajectory of either direct conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or capitulation to it over Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities have said that no plans to request a stopover in the US had been submitted to Washington, but Trump shared a direct call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平)
Workers’ rights groups on July 17 called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant fishers, days after CNN reported what it described as a “pattern of abuse” in Taiwan’s distant-water fishing industry. The report detailed the harrowing account of Indonesian migrant fisher Silwanus Tangkotta, who crushed his fingers in a metal door last year while aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel. The captain reportedly refused to return to port for medical treatment, as they “hadn’t caught enough fish to justify the trip.” Tangkotta lost two fingers, and was fired and denied compensation upon returning to land. Another former migrant fisher, Adrian Dogdodo
RSS