The global order is in a state of flux. The US and the EU are looking to redefine their roles and establish relationships in the Indo-Pacific region, while China has been working hard to consolidate its engagement with Europe, and more recently aligned itself with Russia. The US and China are discovering that they need to reappraise how they build these relationships, as small and middle powers are losing patience with being taken for granted.
Internal ideological battles in Taiwan’s main political parties show that the nation is undecided which side — the US or China, or both — it wants to align with.
The Democratic Progressive Party, especially under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), has aligned itself firmly with the US, while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) position is more nuanced, despite KMT Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) US-friendly statements during his visit to Washington. Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) led the KMT more into China’s sphere of influence than any other of its past leaders.
The Taiwan People’s Party has established itself as a viable third force in Taiwan’s politics, and its chairman, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), has shown himself to be more open to alignment with China.
However, most Taiwanese have lost patience with Beijing’s attempts to force them to choose.
The US appears to be learning that its previous attitude to smaller countries will no longer cut it; China has yet to learn that lesson, as seen at the Shangri-la Dialogue security summit in Singapore and by how it has treated central eastern European countries that have been friendly to Taiwan.
Beijing has been trying to build bridges with the region, beginning with the 2012 China and Central and Eastern European Countries Initiative — also known as “16+1” — to supplement Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) Belt and Road Initiative.
The promises of investment in major infrastructure projects and increased trade Beijing made to the European initiative members — originally numbering 16, then 17 when Greece joined in 2019, and now again 16 after Lithuania left last year — turned out to be hollow. Starved of support or attention from China, the initiative is walking dead.
During an interview in Tokyo on Tuesday last week, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis said that none of the European initiative members could pinpoint any benefit from it.
Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil has said that he considers the format nonfunctional and that it was only introduced to increase Beijing’s influence in the region. He is also in favor of his country withdrawing.
However, it is the pitfalls of economic cooperation with a totalitarian regime that uses economic tools for political ends, as the member states learned from China’s overbearing response to Lithuania and the Czech Republic’s overtures to Taiwan. They did not suspect that the initiative was meant to limit their freedom to engage with Taiwan.
Perhaps more problematic for many eastern European countries worried about Russian aggression was Xi’s announcement of Beijing’s and Moscow’s friendship “without limits” just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Xi’s refusal to condemn Moscow’s actions. China does not seem to understand eastern European countries’ reservations about support for Russia.
Vystrcil has praised the international community for its support of Prague after Beijing started exerting pressure, but said that Lithuania did not receive the same level of support. He said that any withdrawal from the 16+1 initiative would be more effective if it were a coordinated, planned effort.
It is this unity that small and medium-sized nations need to rely on in dealing with major power competition. Having the freedom to choose will make it more likely that they enter an alliance as firm partners.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under