US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday declassified a report that casts the defense of Taiwan as critical to the Indo-Pacific strategy of checking China’s ascent, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
“US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific” has governed the US’ strategic response to China since Trump approved it in February 2018, Bloomberg reported, citing a statement by US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
“Beijing is increasingly pressuring Indo-Pacific nations to subordinate their freedom and sovereignty to a ‘common destiny’ envisioned by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP],” O’Brien was cited as saying.
Photo: Reuters
The report assumes that China would “take increasingly assertive steps to compel unification with Taiwan,” Bloomberg quoted the document as saying.
China’s presumptive aim is to “dissolve US alliances and partnerships in the region” before moving to “exploit vacuums and opportunities created by these diminished bonds,” the report says.
It advises the US to devise and implement a defense strategy that is capable of denying China sustained air and sea dominance inside the first island chain in a war, and defending Taiwan and other first nations on the island chain.
Part of that defense strategy would be to enable “Taiwan to develop an asymmetric defense strategy and capabilities” that would allow the nation to “engage China on its own terms,” the report says.
The report highlights China’s “predatory economic practices” that “freeze out” foreign competition, undermining US competitiveness and furthering the CCP’s ambitions to “dominate the 21st-century economy.”
Beijing is also expected to seek dominion over “cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence and bio-genetics, and to harness them in the service of authoritarianism,” the report says.
The US should contend with China’s economic practices by building an international consensus that Beijing’s industrial and unfair trade politics are detrimental to the global trading system, it says.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) yesterday said that the strategic framework for the Indo-Pacific contradicts the “solemn promises of the US” regarding its policy toward Taiwan.
“The US should turn away from an erroneous and dangerous path that could jeopardize peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and harm China-US relations,” he said.
Zhao made the remarks at a routine news conference and reiterated Beijing’s “one China” principle that “Taiwan is an inseparable sovereign territory of China.”
“The content of the documents betrays the vile intentions of the US Indo-Pacific strategy to suppress China and to damage regional peace and stability,” he said, calling the document “a strategy to maintain hegemony.”
“China has the determination, confidence and ability to defeat external forces’ attempts at interference or Taiwanese independence conspiracies,” he said.
“Any ploy to check China with Taiwan is futile,” Zhao added.
The document’s allegations that China is ratcheting up the pressure on neighboring countries are “malicious distortions and lies,” he said.
REACHING OUT: President Tsai expressed condolences to the deceased man’s family and wished a speedy recovery to those who were wounded in the shooting The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) on Monday called on the US to label organizations associated with the suspect in the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church shooting as domestic terrorists, following accusations that he was a member of a group backing unification with ties to the Chinese government. David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, was arrested on Sunday and is being held in lieu of US$1 million bail at the Orange County Intake Release Center over a mass shooting at the California church that left one dead and five wounded. Local police suspect the shooting was politically motivated after they found notes in
NO CONSENSUS YET: Local governments and the CECC have agreed to change the ‘3+4’ self-isolation policy, but are still mulling what to replace it with The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and local governments have agreed to ease restrictions on close contacts of COVID-19 cases, although the details are still being discussed, the center said yesterday. The discussions follow Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Saturday approving a proposal to shorten the “3+4” policy — three days of home isolation followed by four days of self-disease prevention — for close contacts who have received booster doses. “We did not reach a consensus on how to revise the current restrictions, but we all agreed that the administrative burden must be reduced and the intensity of restrictions must be eased,
OPPOSING CHINESE ‘HOSTILITY’: The bill orders the state secretary to create a plan to regain observer status for Taiwan, saying Taipei is a model contributor to world health US President Joe Biden on Friday signed a bill into law to help Taiwan regain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), demonstrating Washington’s support for Taiwan’s international participation. Friday was the deadline for Biden to sign the bill (S.812), which directs “the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to regain observer status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO), and for other purposes.” The 75th WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday next week to May 28. The bill, introduced by US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate
LIVING WITH COVID-19: Close contacts with a booster shot would no longer follow the ‘3+4’ policy, instead practicing ‘0+7,’ or self-disease prevention for seven days Close contacts of COVID-19 cases who have received a booster shot no longer need to isolate at home, but should practice seven days of “self-disease prevention,” effective today, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that starting at 12am today, close contacts — people living in the same household — of those confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 are exempt from home isolation if they have received a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Data from other countries show that people who have received a booster shot are
RSS