Taiwan can only break free from Beijing’s military threat and containment of its international space with stronger national defense and value-based diplomacy due to changing political dynamics and the positions of China and the US, academics said yesterday.
At a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-organized forum on cross-strait relations and regional security, experts said that although Washington remained Taiwan’s main ally, it has become harder for the US to assist Taiwan in the event of Chinese aggression.
The risk the US faces should it help Taiwan has grown with the rise of China and the changed dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region, said Lin Cheng-yi (林正義), a research fellow at Academia Sinica.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s role as a security partner for the US’ “pivot” in Asia would not be as critical as those of Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, Lin said.
Taiwan has to develop its asymmetrical warfare capabilities and increase its defense budget, Lin said, adding that the administration of US President Barack Obama would be wise to maintain its neutrality in the presidential election in 2016 as it had jeopardized mutual trust by interfering in last year’s presidential election.
Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥), a professor at National Chung Hsing University, said a US-China dual-leadership in the Asia-Pacific region has also limited Taiwan’s — and the DPP’s — options as they could no longer resolve cross-strait problems with reconciliation and a “balancing strategy.”
Traditional diplomacy is a dead end, Tsai said, but value-based diplomacy could further integrate Taiwan into the international community if it addressed global issues.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
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The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
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