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.
VOTERS’ CHOICE: The DPP’s Chen and independent candidate Huang conceded defeat before 7:20pm, with Chiang pledging to remain humble and do his best Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday won the Taipei mayoral election, with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate defeating the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) pick, former minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), and former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), an independent. After polling stations closed at 4pm, the Taipei Election Commission issued a preliminary estimate that voter turnout in the city was about 64 percent, slightly lower than in 2018. Chiang, 43, is to be the youngest Taipei mayor ever, with the KMT regaining the capital after eight years. Chen had an exceptionally high national approval rating when he was head
A naval landing craft on Thursday sank near Kinmen County after wet weather and rough seas flooded its cabin, the Naval Fleet Command said. The vessel, called Landing Craft Mechanized 1326, had completed transport and replenishment missions in the county and was returning to Taiwan proper when surging waves flooded the cabin, the navy said in a statement. The craft’s five crew members tried to bail out the water to no avail, the Navy said. The landing craft eventually sank off Kinmen’s Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣) at 5:18pm, although all crew members rescued, it said, adding that the precise cause of the sinking
FAMILY BACKGROUND: Chiang was effective in running a cautious campaign to avoid making mistakes, waiting for other candidates to slip up, an analyst said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei Mayor-elect Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) stood out among his rivals due to his energy, his die-hard supporters and his relative openness to discuss issues such as same-sex marriage, a political analyst said yesterday. Chiang’s campaign was also aided by his family’s background in politics, which helped him garner greater support in Taipei where there is a large KMT base, said the analyst, who chose to remain anonymous. “Chiang is also not a typical KMT member when it comes to certain issues, such as gay marriage, and his more open stance widened his support base — particularly among young
TOURIST HOTSPOT: The air charter services would drastically cut travel time to the world-renowned beach with its service to Caticlan, instead of Kalibo Royal Air Philippines is to launch next month direct flights between Taiwan and the Philippine city of Caticlan, a closer entry point to tourist hotspot Boracay. The airline will initially offer six charter flights between Dec. 26 and Jan. 15, with the flight frequency increasing to one per day during the Lunar New Year and winter holidays from Jan. 19 to Feb. 8, it announced at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. The charter flight services will drastically cut travel time to Boracay to about two hours and 45 minutes. Before the new route is launched, travelers from Taiwan who
RSS