There is no distinction between doves and hawks in Beijing’s dealings with Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) said yesterday, after a lawmaker asked whether a recent leadership change at major Chinese think tanks dealing with Taiwan indicates a transition from dovish tactics to more hawkish ones.
Speaking at a question-and-answer session at the legislature, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said that China’s National Society of Taiwan Studies and the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently had new heads appointed to lead the organizations.
“The new heads are different from their predecessors, who were academics or experts who have studied Taiwan’s economic, social and cultural affairs for a long time,” Chiu said.
Dai Bingguo (戴秉國), the new chairman of the National Society of Taiwan Studies, “is a veteran diplomat specializing in Soviet Union and Eastern European issues, and is a former Chinese deputy minister of foreign affairs, a former director of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s [CCP] Central Committee and a former director of the National Security Leadership Group of the CCP Central Committee,” Chiu said, adding that Dai’s previous positions has no direct connections to cross-strait relations.
Yang Mingjie (楊明杰), the new chairman of the Institute of Taiwan Studies “is a counter-terrorism expert specializing in Asia-Pacific security and US-China relations,” Chiu added.
Chiu said he feels that the selection of people with foreign and security backgrounds over “dovish academics who have studied and frequently made exchanges with Taiwan signifies a shift to a more hawkish stance.”
Chang said the Beijing team that deals with Taiwan operates at a central level and consists of many members, including those from the Taiwan Affairs Office, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the military and national security agencies.
“China places its Taiwan policy on the same level as its relationship with the US,” Chang said.
Chiu said the think tanks could affect Beijing’s policies toward Taiwan and that the two institutions have never before been headed by people with foreign and national security backgrounds.
“This should give us an indication on how to adjust our strategy,” he said.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
RSS