The US should insist on a binding code of conduct prohibiting the use of force to settle Taiwan’s future, a new study released this week by the Hudson Institute said.
Washington should also insist that the same code of conduct prohibit the use of force to settle territorial disputes in the East and South China seas, the study said.
“The forceful ‘unification’ of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] would lower the credibility of the American alliance system in Asia,” the study written by Hudson Institute senior fellows John Lee and Charles Horner said.
“Moreover, if the People’s Liberation Army [PLA] is allowed physical access to Taiwanese ports and untrammeled access to Taiwan’s exclusive maritime economic zone, this would offer the PLA Navy the strategic breakout into the Western Pacific that it needs to significantly alter the strategic balance in the wider East and Southeast region,” it said.
Current US policy in the Taiwan Strait is deliberately ambiguous and casts doubt on Washington’s clarity about its own strategic interests in East Asia vis-a-vis an ambitious and increasingly assertive PRC, the study said.
Titled Keeping the Peace in the Pacific the study asserts that a US failure to adopt a clear and robust position on sovereignty disputes involving the PRC in the East and South China seas and the Taiwan Strait also enhances the effectiveness of Beijing’s approach of dividing opponents and probing US resoluteness.
“This means that China is allowed to dictate the pace and extent it asserts its claims in these various regions, even as it increasingly views these claims as indivisible,” the study said.
Instead, the US should counter with the proposition that one binding code of conduct against the use of force to settle these issues should be applicable to all of the contested regions, the study said.
“The high likelihood that the PRC would reject such a proposal is beside the point — the onus would be upon Beijing to justify its rejection of such a code and it would suffer region-wide diplomatic fallout as it goes about doing so,” the study said.
It said that despite China’s size, rapid economic growth and expanding military capabilities, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cannot afford a foreign policy disaster because it would have grave economic consequences for the country and possibly trigger an existential crisis for the party.
The US, in coordination with allies like Japan, should control the pace of diplomatic, military and economic escalation in the event of a crisis — and in doing so impose “prohibitive costs” on the CCP, the study said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS