China has been rapidly expanding its banking operations in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in the context of a gradual withdrawal by Western banks.
For example, after Australia’s Bendigo and Adelaide Bank announced its plan to withdraw from Nauru, Bank of China, which has opened offices across the region, signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Nauruan government. This quick reaction raises worries that China might have a broader hidden agenda.
The withdrawal of Western banks is partly due to increasingly stringent financial supervision requirements.
However, their withdrawal makes it more difficult to open US dollar-denominated bank accounts in Pacific island nations, which weakens those nations’ financial resilience. Over the past decade, correspondent banking relationships in the region have been declining twice as fast as the global average.
The US and Australia are taking steps to address this challenge. Speaking at the Pacific Banking Forum in Brisbane, Australia, which ran from July 8 to 9, Australian Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said that his nation wants to be the partner of choice in the Asia-Pacific region, in both banking and defense.
He said that Australia would be concerned if there were some nations operating in the region whose principal objective was advancing their own national interest rather than the interests of Pacific island nations.
US Department of the Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said that Washington recognizes the economic and strategic importance of the Asia-Pacific region, and is committed to deepening its engagement and cooperation with its allies and partners to bolster financial connectivity, investment and integration.
These US initiatives are no doubt aimed at countering China’s growing influence in the region.
The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are working on improvement programs to resolve problems facing de-risking efforts in Pacific island nations. These efforts would require the cooperation and support of all stakeholders.
Taiwan, too, should play an active role. As a major economy in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan should use its financial strength and technical knowledge to help Pacific island nations boost their financial resilience.
Taiwan could provide them with technical support to help them build a sound financial system and work together using multilateral cooperative platforms to resist any penetration by outside forces.
Fang Kai-hung is an assistant professor at Taipei University of Maritime Technology.
Translated by Julian Clegg
On March 22, 2023, at the close of their meeting in Moscow, media microphones were allowed to record Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) telling Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, “Right now there are changes — the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years — and we are the ones driving these changes together.” Widely read as Xi’s oath to create a China-Russia-dominated world order, it can be considered a high point for the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea (CRINK) informal alliance, which also included the dictatorships of Venezuela and Cuba. China enables and assists Russia’s war against Ukraine and North Korea’s
After thousands of Taiwanese fans poured into the Tokyo Dome to cheer for Taiwan’s national team in the World Baseball Classic’s (WBC) Pool C games, an image of food and drink waste left at the stadium said to have been left by Taiwanese fans began spreading on social media. The image sparked wide debate, only later to be revealed as an artificially generated image. The image caption claimed that “Taiwanese left trash everywhere after watching the game in Tokyo Dome,” and said that one of the “three bad habits” of Taiwanese is littering. However, a reporter from a Japanese media outlet
The Iran war has exposed a fundamental vulnerability in the global energy system. The escalating confrontation between Iran, Israel and the US has begun to shake international energy markets, largely because Iran is disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. This narrow waterway carries roughly one-third of the world’s seaborne oil, making it one of the most strategically sensitive energy corridors in the world. Even the possibility of disruption has triggered sharp volatility in global oil prices. The duration and scope of the conflict remain uncertain, with senior US officials offering contradictory signals about how long military operations might continue.
An article published in the Dec. 12, 1949, edition of the Central Daily News (中央日報) bore a headline with the intimidating phrase: “You Cannot Escape.” The article was about the execution of seven “communist spies,” some say on the basis of forced confessions, at the end of the 713 Penghu Incident. Those were different times, born of political paranoia shortly after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) relocated to Taiwan following defeat in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The phrase was a warning by the KMT regime to the local populace not to challenge its power or threaten national unity. The
RSS