US President Joe Biden’s conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and his announced foreign policies show that, in addition to military and ideological opposition and containment, the US’ competitive strategy toward China includes suppression of high tech and trade competition, and cooperation in selected areas.
The main focus is to maintain peace, liberty and openness in the Indo-Pacific region, resulting in the Biden administration calling on Taiwan and China to engage in meaningful dialogue.
Given the new relationships among Taiwan, the US and China since Biden’s inauguration, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has made adjustments to the national security team, and is striving toward cross-strait and regional peace, backed up by improved national defense capabilities.
The question is how Taiwan can engage in dialogue with China when they do not have equal international standing. Furthermore, the only goal of China’s Taiwan policy is to annex Taiwan and it relentlessly demands that Taiwan accept a “one China” consensus.
Surely the US government knows that China is unwilling to accept the political reality of the Republic of China on Taiwan and looks on Taiwan as a local government that it expects to annex.
As the US fears a war in the Taiwan Strait and wants the two sides to engage in dialogue, it must recognize Taiwan diplomatically and help it to join the UN. That is the only way that Taiwan’s international standing can equal China’s and the two countries can engage in talks on cross-strait peace.
When US Department of State spokesman Ned Price urged cross-strait dialogue, he referred to “meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives” — a far cry from former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s “Taiwan’s president.”
Even if the US government fears igniting a war across the Taiwan Strait and refuses to amend its “one China” policy — and the view that Taiwan is part of China — it should not belittle Taiwan’s national status and sovereignty in this way.
Taiwan understands that the US refers to the nation in this way because it does not want to use the provocative language of former US president Donald Trump, intensifying US-China opposition and hindering implementation of its China strategy.
The Biden administration knows that China and Taiwan are separately ruled, so addressing Taiwan’s leader in this way ignores that its popularly elected president represents a democratic nation and diminishes it to a local government.
This shows that although the Biden administration continues Trump’s China policy, it has reverted to the ambiguity of former US president Barack Obama’s administration regarding Taiwanese sovereignty — merely considering Taiwan as a political entity helpful for containing China, but avoiding the political reality that it is a sovereign nation that does not belong to China.
The department’s statement has given China the opportunity to demand that the US urge Taiwan to accept a “one China” consensus and paved the way for annexing Taiwan on the excuse that peace in the Taiwan Strait is beneficial to the US’ western Pacific policy interests.
As US-China tensions and the competition-cooperation mix continues, the two nations’ dealings on issues such as climate change, public health and nuclear arms deterrence might bring the US back toward shared control of the Strait with China and giving in to Beijing’s demands — which would hamper Taiwan’s protection of its de facto sovereignty.
Based on the principles of mutual benefit and coexistence, the national security team must find ways to urge the US to face up to the reality that Taiwan is a sovereign nation.
Michael Lin is a retired diplomat who served in the US.
Translated by Perry Svensson
The government and local industries breathed a sigh of relief after Shin Kong Life Insurance Co last week said it would relinquish surface rights for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) to Nvidia Corp. The US chip-design giant’s plan to expand its local presence will be crucial for Taiwan to safeguard its core role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and to advance the nation’s AI development. The land in dispute is owned by the Taipei City Government, which in 2021 sold the rights to develop and use the two plots of land, codenamed T17 and T18, to the
US President Donald Trump has announced his eagerness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while in South Korea for the APEC summit. That implies a possible revival of US-North Korea talks, frozen since 2019. While some would dismiss such a move as appeasement, renewed US engagement with North Korea could benefit Taiwan’s security interests. The long-standing stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang has allowed Beijing to entrench its dominance in the region, creating a myth that only China can “manage” Kim’s rogue nation. That dynamic has allowed Beijing to present itself as an indispensable power broker: extracting concessions from Washington, Seoul
Taiwan’s labor force participation rate among people aged 65 or older was only 9.9 percent for 2023 — far lower than in other advanced countries, Ministry of Labor data showed. The rate is 38.3 percent in South Korea, 25.7 percent in Japan and 31.5 percent in Singapore. On the surface, it might look good that more older adults in Taiwan can retire, but in reality, it reflects policies that make it difficult for elderly people to participate in the labor market. Most workplaces lack age-friendly environments, and few offer retraining programs or flexible job arrangements for employees older than 55. As
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has offered Taiwan a paradoxical mix of reassurance and risk. Trump’s visceral hostility toward China could reinforce deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. Yet his disdain for alliances and penchant for transactional bargaining threaten to erode what Taiwan needs most: a reliable US commitment. Taiwan’s security depends less on US power than on US reliability, but Trump is undermining the latter. Deterrence without credibility is a hollow shield. Trump’s China policy in his second term has oscillated wildly between confrontation and conciliation. One day, he threatens Beijing with “massive” tariffs and calls China America’s “greatest geopolitical
RSS