On Saturday last week, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) and other international strategy experts took part in a forum organized by the Formosa Republican Association to mark the 45th anniversary of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
Forums related to the TRA have generally involved more reminiscences than visions, as Taiwan was for a long time stuck in the rut of strategic ambiguity.
However there was a completely different climate at this forum, as could be seen from Hsiao’s and Chen’s remarks, and the evidence presented by experts and academics.
The new climate has emerged because of the changes in the international strategic situation. The world has entered the age of strategic clarity.
As international relations expert and regular On Taiwan columnist Guermantes Lailari said at the forum, the very title of the TRA made it clear from the outset that Taiwan is Taiwan. The US sought to ally itself with China against the Soviet Union during the Cold War and to join hands with China to fight terrorism during the War on Terror, and only for these reasons was it temporarily inconvenient to openly offend China.
That is why the US repeatedly said that it “acknowledges” that China defines Taiwan as one of its provinces, but Washington has never agreed with or recognized such a claim.
Now that the age of strategic clarity has started, US support for Taiwan is becoming ever clearer. It has in repeated public statements emphasized that Taiwan is Taiwan and changes of regime in China have nothing to do with Taiwan.
Miles Yu (余茂春), who served as China policy adviser to former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in former US president Donald Trump’s administration, presented a pre-recorded talk at the forum in which he said that some details of the TRA are still less than ideal.
For example, the region to which it applies only includes Taiwan proper and the Penghu archipelago, which the TRA calls the Pescadores, but Yu said that it should include Kinmen and Lienchiang counties off the coast of China’s Fujian Province, as well as Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島) and Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) in the South China Sea. Also, the TRA talks about “the people on Taiwan,” which would include any foreign tourist who sets foot in the nation, so this should be corrected to “Taiwanese.”
Regarding these two loopholes in the TRA, as well as other experts’ suggestions that the TRA could go further than it does, the government and public should work hand in hand to have closer interactions with the US Congress and urge it to make amendments that improve the TRA.
Another thing to aim for is for not just the US, but also at least the world’s most important countries to have their own versions of a TRA. This idea is no flight of fancy given that the newly established Conservative Party of Japan, which has a former mayor of Sendai as one of its advisers, has as one of its main demands that Japan should enact its own version of the TRA.
The government and public can march separately and strike together to establish contact with Taiwan-friendly parties and politicians in the world’s most important countries, and ask them to promote the enactment of their own TRAs.
If the US, Japan, the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland all had TRAs, they would be obliged to obey the law, providing greater safeguards for Taiwan’s security and boosting the nation’s progress toward being a normal country.
Tommy Lin is president of the Formosa Republican Association and the Taiwan United Nations Alliance.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Chinese actor Alan Yu (于朦朧) died after allegedly falling from a building in Beijing on Sept. 11. The actor’s mysterious death was tightly censored on Chinese social media, with discussions and doubts about the incident quickly erased. Even Hong Kong artist Daniel Chan’s (陳曉東) post questioning the truth about the case was automatically deleted, sparking concern among overseas Chinese-speaking communities about the dark culture and severe censorship in China’s entertainment industry. Yu had been under house arrest for days, and forced to drink with the rich and powerful before he died, reports said. He lost his life in this vicious
George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This article will help readers avoid repeating mistakes by examining four examples from the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces and the Republic of China (ROC) forces that involved two city sieges and two island invasions. The city sieges compared are Changchun (May to October 1948) and Beiping (November 1948 to January 1949, renamed Beijing after its capture), and attempts to invade Kinmen (October 1949) and Hainan (April 1950). Comparing and contrasting these examples, we can learn how Taiwan may prevent a war with
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
In South Korea, the medical cosmetic industry is fiercely competitive and prices are low, attracting beauty enthusiasts from Taiwan. However, basic medical risks are often overlooked. While sharing a meal with friends recently, I heard one mention that his daughter would be going to South Korea for a cosmetic skincare procedure. I felt a twinge of unease at the time, but seeing as it was just a casual conversation among friends, I simply reminded him to prioritize safety. I never thought that, not long after, I would actually encounter a patient in my clinic with a similar situation. She had
RSS