Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) reportedly told the EU’s top diplomat that China does not want Russia to lose in Ukraine, because the US could shift its focus to countering Beijing.
Wang made the comment while meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas on July 2 at the 13th China-EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue in Brussels, the South China Morning Post and CNN reported.
Although contrary to China’s claim of neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, such a frank remark suggests Beijing might prefer a protracted war to keep the US from focusing on its rivalry with China.
A report by the Coalition Defense of Taiwan said that a Russian defeat in Ukraine would weaken Moscow, one of China’s most important partners, and allow the West to focus on building alliances in the Indo-Pacific region, creating a poor scenario for China.
Although the international community has raised concerns that the increasing disparity between the US and its allies over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs could give China a chance to consolidate its international dominance, recent geopolitical developments could be a rude awakening for Beijing.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at a February defense summit in Brussels said that European countries should take responsibility for safeguarding European security and aiding Ukraine, while the US would prioritize China’s threats in the Indo-Pacific region. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in May, he reassured Asian allies that Washington would refocus its defense to work with the region to confront Chinese expansionism, particularly its aggression toward Taiwan and attempts to change the “status quo” in Asia.
In addition to increased joint military drills and deployments in Asia, the US has urged its Asian allies to step up their defense spending and efforts related to collective defense against China, taking the example of the EU consensus for higher defense spending.
According to the Financial Times, the Pentagon has also asked Japan and Australia to further clarify their stances in a possible conflict over Taiwan, aiming to ensure a united front in the region.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a visit to China on Tuesday said that he had reaffirmed to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) Canberra’s consistent stance opposing any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait. He also objected to China’s naval exercises off the Australian coast, which are widely regarded as a display of Beijing’s ambitious regional expansion.
Japan on Tuesday released its latest annual defense white paper, which highlighted China as Tokyo’s biggest strategic challenge, and Beijing’s growing joint operations with Russia and North Korea as a serious threat to Asia and the world. Following proposals by the Japanese defense minister to link East Asia, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula as a “single theater of battle,” the report suggested that Japan work with the US and like-minded Asian allies to play a greater role in safeguarding regional peace.
The Philippines is also expanding military cooperation with the US, Japan and European democracies, as well as ramping up engagements with Taiwan to counter China. Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr in a Washington Post interview published on Monday said that China’s expansionism has been a matter of extreme concern in Asia, and endorsed Japan’s proposal to view Asia as a single theater of battle that should be jointly defended.
Whether the US could force a ceasefire in Ukraine and the Middle East, China should face the fact that its expansionism has driven the US and Asian countries to bolster their defensive alliances in the region, probably the last thing Beijing wants to see.
In a meeting with Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste on Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) vowed to continue providing aid to Haiti. Taiwan supports Haiti with development in areas such as agriculture, healthcare and education through initiatives run by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF). The nation it has established itself as a responsible, peaceful and innovative actor committed to global cooperation, Jean-Baptiste said. Testimonies such as this give Taiwan a voice in the global community, where it often goes unheard. Taiwan’s reception in Haiti also contrasts with how China has been perceived in countries in the region
The world has become less predictable, less rules-based, and more shaped by the impulses of strongmen and short-term dealmaking. Nowhere is this more consequential than in East Asia, where the fate of democratic Taiwan hinges on how global powers manage — or mismanage — tensions with an increasingly assertive China. The return of Donald Trump to the White House has deepened the global uncertainty, with his erratic, highly personalized foreign-policy approach unsettling allies and adversaries alike. Trump appears to treat foreign policy like a reality show. Yet, paradoxically, the global unpredictability may offer Taiwan unexpected deterrence. For China, the risk of provoking the
On April 13, I stood in Nanan (南安), a Bunun village in southern Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪), absorbing lessons from elders who spoke of the forest not as backdrop, but as living presence — relational, sacred and full of spirit. I was there with fellow international students from National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) participating in a field trip that would become one of the most powerful educational experiences of my life. Ten days later, a news report in the Taipei Times shattered the spell: “Formosan black bear shot and euthanized in Hualien” (April 23, page 2). A tagged bear, previously released
Young supporters of former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) were detained for posting the names and photographs of judges and prosecutors believed to be overseeing the Core Pacific City redevelopment corruption case. The supporters should be held responsible for their actions. As for Ko’s successor, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), he should reflect on whether his own comments are provocative and whether his statements might be misunderstood. Huang needs to apologize to the public and the judiciary. In the article, “Why does sorry seem to be the hardest word?” the late political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) wrote
RSS