US president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would not rule out military force to “take back” the Panama Canal or to take over Greenland, adding that sovereign control over those two areas is of the utmost importance to US national security.
Trump has made such statements before. He openly expressed his interest in Greenland and Panama on several occasions during his first term.
Simply put, Greenland’s strategic value to the US can be found in laying along the shortest flight paths between Europe and North America, and being the absolute best location for the US military’s deployment of ballistic missile early warning and interception systems — some of which are already deployed there. The importance of the Panama Canal is far more evident, including for naval vessels. Every day, several US Navy vessels rely on the canal to cut down on time traversing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
As for Taiwan’s location, it possesses advantages similar to Greenland and the Panama Canal. With the Leshan radar station, we can see the airspace situation stretching from the Korean Peninsula in the north, down to the furthest islands of the South China Sea, as well as deep into inland China.
Such information is extremely important for the US’ operations of intercontinental ballistic early warning systems and interception missions in the Indo-Pacific region.
Moreover, a report by the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in October showed that, based on trade data, about one-fifth of the world’s trade passed through the Taiwan Strait. In other words, were the Strait to come under Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control, it would be tantamount to putting a chokehold on large trading powers, such as the US and Japan.
When comparing Greenland and the Panama Canal with Taiwan, it goes without saying that if Trump is insistent on his ideas for the former, then he simply cannot sit back and watch the CCP take control of Taiwan.
Huang Wei-ping works in public service and has a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Translated by Tim Smith
In a summer of intense political maneuvering, Taiwanese, whose democratic vibrancy is a constant rebuke to Beijing’s authoritarianism, delivered a powerful verdict not on China, but on their own political leaders. Two high-profile recall campaigns, driven by the ruling party against its opposition, collapsed in failure. It was a clear signal that after months of bitter confrontation, the Taiwanese public is demanding a shift from perpetual campaign mode to the hard work of governing. For Washington and other world capitals, this is more than a distant political drama. The stability of Taiwan is vital, as it serves as a key player
Much like the first round on July 26, Saturday’s second wave of recall elections — this time targeting seven Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers — also failed. With all 31 KMT legislators who faced recall this summer secure in their posts, the mass recall campaign has come to an end. The outcome was unsurprising. Last month’s across-the-board defeats had already dealt a heavy blow to the morale of recall advocates and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), while bolstering the confidence of the KMT and its ally the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). It seemed a foregone conclusion that recalls would falter, as
The fallout from the mass recalls and the referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant continues to monopolize the news. The general consensus is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been bloodied and found wanting, and is in need of reflection and a course correction if it is to avoid electoral defeat. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has not emerged unscathed, either, but has the opportunity of making a relatively clean break. That depends on who the party on Oct. 18 picks to replace outgoing KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫). What is certain is that, with the dust settling
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) on Thursday last week urged democratic nations to boycott China’s military parade on Wednesday next week. The parade, a grand display of Beijing’s military hardware, is meant to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. While China has invited world leaders to attend, many have declined. A Kyodo News report on Sunday said that Japan has asked European and Asian leaders who have yet to respond to the invitation to refrain from attending. Tokyo is seeking to prevent Beijing from spreading its distorted interpretation of wartime history, the report
RSS