Legislators across party lines yesterday speculated about Beijing’s intentions following the recent confiscation in Hong Kong of Singaporean military vehicles shipped from Kaohsiung, questioning if President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration was the real target, not Singapore.
Nine Terrex infantry carriers, headed home after being used in Singaporean training exercises in Taiwan, were seized by Hong Kong customs officials on Wednesday last week, reportedly after a tip-off from a Chinese security agent.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) on Monday told a regular news conference in Beijing that China was opposed to nations with which it has diplomatic having any form of official exchanges with Taiwan, including military exchanges and cooperation.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said it was hard to believe that the incident was not politically motivated, given the current cross-strait stalemate, the results of the US presidential election and Singapore siding with Washington on several issues, including South China Sea disputes.
Beijing might try to use the incident to warn Singapore, but it was unlikely to seriously dent its relations with the city-state, he said.
Beijing had not previously tried to interfere with Taiwan-Singapore military ties, and the shipment’s seizure might have been aimed at Tsai’s administration, which has incurred several punitive measures from Beijing because of its refusal to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit agreement between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both agree that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means. Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted to making up the term in 2000.
The Tsai administration must come up with a solution, because military cooperation with Singapore must be maintained, regardless of which party is in power, he said.
The government should consider whether Singapore might be facing greater pressure from China, as Trump could backtrack from US President Barack Obama’s Asian “pivot,” creating a power vacuum in regional politics.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Shih-yang (蔡適應) said the seizure could have just been a coincidence, because as far as he knew, Singapore usually uses specially contracted ships to transport its military equipment to and from Taiwan, but this time the equipment was sent back commercially.
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