Ahead of a meeting of the UN General Assembly on Monday next week, Irish news site Gript on Aug. 31 published an article by Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) titled “Reimagining a more resilient UN system with Taiwan in it.”
In the article, Wu said that the nation’s achievements in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and its contributions to the global supply chain are “compelling reasons for Taiwan to play a constructive role in the UN system.”
Wu also lamented the many ways in which Beijing stymies, suppresses and silences Taiwan’s voice at the UN.
Wu should be commended for refraining from using Taiwan’s official name — the Republic of China. It is an outdated formula, although habitually employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the past, which can lead to serious misunderstandings.
Instead, Wu simply referred to the nation by its widely understood name: “Taiwan,” telling the world that “Taiwan is Taiwan and China is China.”
This marked an important step toward the nation finally breaking free from its China-imposed straitjacket.
Wu pressing home this attack against China dovetails with a wider trend of European nations supporting Taiwan, despite China’s resistance.
First, the Lithuanian government in July announced that it would establish a “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania,” eliciting howls of rage from Beijing. Lithuania was not acting unilaterally, and the move reflected a wider strategic stance adopted by the EU and the US.
On Wednesday last week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a “EU-Taiwan political relations and cooperation” report and related proposals by a landslide 60-to-4 vote, with six abstentions.
The proposals urge the EU to rename its representative office in Taipei the “EU Office in Taiwan,” pay close attention to China’s coercion of Taiwan, work with the wider international community to maintain stability in the Taiwan Strait and incorporate the nation as a partner in the bloc’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
China’s leaders again flew into a violent rage.
On Thursday, EU lawmaker Charlie Weimers called on the bloc to invite Taiwanese leaders to visit Europe and start discussions on an “EU-Taiwan Bilateral Investment Agreement.”
These developments showed the international community’s unified will to resist China’s hegemonic designs.
Speaking at a forum on Monday, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the country’s economy had proven remarkably resilient in the face of Beijing’s economic coercion.
Frydenberg also announced Australia’s new “China plus” strategy, which aims to diversify the country’s exports and encourage Australian businesses to expand their horizons beyond the Chinese market in an attempt to reduce dependence on China.
The same day, the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group docked at Japan’s Port of Yokosuka, which is the home of the US’ forward-deployed USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. It was a symbolic move, demonstrating Britain’s capability to deploy significant naval assets far from its shores to assist the US to conduct a large-scale naval blockade of China if required.
Under the direction of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the foreign ministry has taken the first step toward achieving a diplomatic breakthrough in Europe.
Hopefully the ministry can keep up the momentum and continue opening more doors on the international stage, in particular regarding the pivotal relationship with the US, and increase concrete recognition of Taiwan in Washington.
Tommy Lin is the director of the Wu Fu Eye Clinic and president of the Formosa Republican Association.
Translated by Edward Jones
The White House’s decision to take a 9.9 percent stake in Intel Corp is looking like very shrewd business indeed. Since the government bought in at US$20.47 a share last August, the US chipmaker’s surging stock price has delivered the US a US$43 billion return. One of the reasons the investment has so far proved so sound is that the White House has made sure of it. According to The Wall Street Journal, Howard personally pushed deals on Intel’s behalf with some of the most lucrative clients imaginable. They include Nvidia Corp, the company at the heart of the AI
The Ministry of the Interior, working with the navy and coast guard, is organizing Taiwan’s first joint exercise simulating escort tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) and oil through a Chinese blockade. The drills simulate fuel transport along three maritime corridors leading toward Japan, the Philippines and the US. Deputy Minister of the Interior Sawyer Mars (馬士元) said that a blockade of the Taiwan Strait would amount to “almost a 100 percent blockade of the regional energy supply.” Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo said planning to counter a blockade is standard practice in Taipei. While the exercise is limited in
A single photograph can cut through a lot of noise, but it can also be used to misrepresent the truth. At the very least, it can concentrate the mind on something that requires further investigation. On Monday last week, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation CEO Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) held a news conference in which they showed a photograph of former foundation CEO Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), now Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman. In the image Hsiao is seated next to Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association chairman Han Ying-huan (韓螢煥). The two men were holding
I first met Professor Ray Jiing (井迎瑞) as a film and documentary student at Shih Hsin University’s (SHU) Department of Radio Television and Film in 1988. The following year, he went on to become the director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive — forerunner of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). Over his eight-year tenure, Jiing rescued and restored over 200 classic Taiwanese films. In 1997, he established the Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary and Film Archiving at Tainan National University of the Arts (TNNUA), and I joined the program in his third cohort of students. Beyond a
RSS