Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) last week made a rare visit to the Philippines, which not only deepened bilateral economic ties, but also signaled a diplomatic breakthrough in the face of growing tensions with China. Lin’s trip marks the second-known visit by a Taiwanese foreign minister since Manila and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 1975; then-minister Chang Hsiao-yen (章孝嚴) took a “vacation” in the Philippines in 1997.
As Taiwan is one of the Philippines’ top 10 economic partners, Lin visited Manila and other cities to promote the Taiwan-Philippines Economic Corridor, with an eye to connecting it with the Luzon Economic Corridor launched by the Philippines, the US and Japan to boost economic development, focusing on investments in clean energy, semiconductors and agribusiness among others. This demonstrates Taiwan’s efforts to integrate into the bigger US-Japan-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and non-red supply chains to counter China’s regional influence.
Lin’s visit came after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr in April issued a memorandum easing decades-old restrictions on official exchanges with Taiwan, while Taipei extended visa-free entry for Philippine passport holders and the two countries inked a double taxation avoidance agreement to promote bilateral investment.
Accompanied by a delegation consisting of Taiwanese and American entrepreneurs, Lin’s visit aimed to extend Taiwan-US cooperation to a third area to bolster trilateral economic development. The trip symbolizes a major breakthrough to expand Taiwan’s diplomatic space and deepen its strategic partnership with the Philippines. Such a breakthrough is not limited to economic issues, but extends to defense and security. In May, Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad talked about military-to-military engagement between the two nations’ navies, and a proposal to regularize warship transits through the Taiwan Strait and potentially engage in joint military activities, as Taiwan had sent observers to the US-Philippines-Japan Kamandag military exercises this year. Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration and its Philippine counterpart have also carried out joint patrols of the Bashi Channel.
Prior to the Manila trip, Lin had traveled to Japan in July — the first public visit by a Taiwanese foreign minister since the two nations severed official ties in 1972. Lin met with Japanese lawmakers, visited the Osaka Expo site, and inspected Taiwan’s representative office and units in Japan.
While China has protested these visits by Taiwan’s top diplomat, it is its diplomatic and military intimidation that has spurred Taiwan’s thriving interactions with Japan and the Philippines. Lin made the visits against a backdrop of rising tensions between Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea, and between Tokyo and Beijing over China’s military intrusions into Japanese territories.
While Taiwan has proposed raising its defense budget next year to a record 3.32 percent of GDP amid rising military threats from China, Tokyo in its defense white paper referred to China as “the unprecedented biggest strategic threat to Japan,” and a Philippine survey showed that more than 85 percent of Filipinos distrust China and viewed it as the greatest threat to the country.
Beijing’s aggression shows that the security challenges facing Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan are interconnected. It is pushing the three major first island chain countries to team up as an evolving defense line to restrain Chinese expansionism in the region. Seeing China’s large military parade on Wednesday to showcase its military muscle and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), standing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, declaring that “China’s great rejuvenation is unstoppable,” the alliance of Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan and Western democracies is a necessity.
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