The relative calm in the Taiwan Strait since 2008 is one of the principal factors behind China’s increasingly aggressive stance in the South China Sea, a Vietnamese academic told a conference in Washington on Wednesday.
The two-day conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), was held amid rising tensions in the South China Sea following the announcement by China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) earlier this week that it was offering nine blocks for joint operation with foreign firms in waters that Vietnam claims fall within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), prompting Hanoi to lodge an formal protest.
Speakers from China, Vietnam and the Philippines — all claimants in the South China Sea disputes — were invited to give presentations on the subject, while academics from the US, Japan and India, which do not have sovereignty claims in the area, provided external rationales for their involvement in conflict resolution.
No one from Taiwan, one of the six claimant countries, presented at the conference, although officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) attended.
Also present at the conference and a speaker on the second day of the event was Fu Kuen-cheng (傅崑成), a former People First Party legislator in the 1990s who now teaches at the KoGuan Law School at Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Speaking in the afternoon, Tran Truong Thuy of the Center for South China Sea Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam argued that the recent stability in the Taiwan Strait following President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) rapprochement initiative with China from 2008 was a source of new tensions in the region because better relations between Taipei and Beijing had freed up Chinese military assets.
Calling the South China Sea China’s second priority after Taiwan, Tran said improved relations had “allowed China to direct resources and attention to the South China Sea” in ways that would have been impossible prior to 2008.
On Beijing’s historical claims to the entire sea, Tran summed up its policy and opposition to a multilateral approach to conflict resolution to that of a bully.
“What is mine is mine, and what is yours is also mine, but I am willing to share,” he said of Beijing’s position.
Earlier in the day, Henry Bensurto, a former secretary-general of the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretariat under the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, drew a direct link between rising military investment in the People’s Liberation Army and its claims on the nine-dash line area of the South China Sea and encroachment in waters within the Philippine EEZ, which culminated in the dispute over the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) earlier this year.
Manila, he said, has no choice but to respond, partly by seeking assistance from the US, with which it signed a mutual-defense treaty in the 1950s.
“Some people say that if you’re being raped, you might as well enjoy it,” he said of Chinese encroachment on the Philippines’ EEZ. “That’s not our policy.”
Such muscle flexing by China undermines the argument, made by a handful of academics last year, that giving in to China’s claims on Taiwan would ensure that China behaves as a responsible and non-belligerent actor in the future, and gives credence to the theory that “abandoning” Taiwan would only encourage Beijing to adopt a more expansionist policy.
For Tetsuo Kotani, a research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, China’s future behavior in the South China Sea could serve as an indication of how Beijing would resolve its longstanding dispute with Japan in the East China Sea.
Kotani said he had engaged in discussions with US and Japanese military officials on the possibility of holding joint US-Japan maritime surveillance in the South China Sea to help stabilize the situation.
However, he did not comment on whether Tokyo and Washington were receptive to the idea.
Assistant US Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Kurt Campbell gave the keynote speech during lunch.
Asked by the Taipei Times whether Washington worried about the possibility of cooperation between Taiwan and China in the South China Sea disputes, Campbell guardedly said that US officials had engaged in talks — in an unofficial capacity — with their Taiwanese counterparts, adding that Taipei had been “very careful” with its language on the subject.
Campbell comments nevertheless provided confirmation that the US was liaising with Taiwan on the matter.
A domestically developed “suicide drone,” also known as a loitering munition, would be tested and evaluated in July, and could enter mass production next year, Taiwan’s weapons developer said on Wednesday. The yet-to-be-named drone was among nine drone models unveiled by the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) on Tuesday. The drone has been dubbed the “Taiwanese switchblade” by Chinese-language media, due to its similarity to the US-made AeroVironment Switchblade 300, which has been used by Ukraine in counterattacks during Russia’s invasion. It has a range of more than 10km, a flight time of more than 15 minutes, and an electro-optical
OFFLINE: People who do not wish to register can get the money from select ATMs using their bank card, ID number and National Health Insurance card number Online registration for NT$6,000 (US$196.32) cash payments drawn from last year’s tax surplus is to open today for eligible people whose national ID or permanent residency number ends in either a zero or a one, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. Officials from the ministry revealed which days Taiwanese and eligible foreigners would be able to register for the cash payments at a joint news conference with the Ministry of Digital Affairs. Online registration is to open tomorrow for those whose number ends in a two or three; on Friday for those that end in a four or five: on Saturday
Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) officials are investigating why a Starlux Airlines flight to Penang, Malaysia, returned to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport nearly two hours after takeoff yesterday morning. The airline said in a statement that Flight JX721 to Penang took off from Taoyuan airport at 9:20am. “After the dashboard showed a signal of an abnormality in the hydraulic system, the captain followed standard operating procedures and returned the flight to Taoyuan airport for safety precautions,” the airline said, adding that the flight landed safely at the airport at 11:04am. The airline arranged for the passengers to have lunch after the flight landed and
TECH PROGRAM: A US official said that an important part of the delegation’s trip would be to meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co executives The US is to send officials in charge of chip development to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to promote cooperation in the global semiconductor supply chain, the US Department of Commerce said on Tuesday. Chips Program Office Director Michael Schmidt announced the visit, which marks the first time officials from the office are to visit the three nations since it was set up in September last year. “As semiconductors and technologies continue to evolve, the United States will keep working with allies and partners to develop coordinated strategies to ensure that malign actors cannot use the latest technologies to undermine our collective