Owing to Beijing’s increasingly aggressive actions, the US and Japan have shifted their policy on the security of the Taiwan Strait from ambiguity to clarity, academics in Taiwan said on Monday.
“The US-Japan Joint Leaders’ Statement explicitly pointed out the importance of the security of the Taiwan Strait,” Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a senior analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said during a forum to discuss last week’s summit in Washington.
“This can be viewed as a shift in the Taiwan Strait policy of the two countries from ‘strategic ambiguity’ to ‘constructive clarity,’ the aim being to counter China’s attempt to change the ‘status quo’ across the Strait through the use of force,” Su said.
Photo: CNA
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met on Friday last week in Washington. A joint statement was issued after their meeting.
“We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues,” read the document, which is believed to be the first joint statement by the US and Japan to mention the importance of cross-strait security since 1969.
China’s increasingly aggressive actions have prompted the deepening of US-Japan security cooperation and forced the two security allies to make clear their policy on Taiwan’s security, Su said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) agreed, saying Taiwan’s security has became an “unignorable” issue for the US and Japan in their Indo-Pacific strategy.
Unlike other regional countries, which have the luxury of choosing sides between the US and China, Taiwan can only side with countries that value democracy and can help protect Taiwan, because the threat to Taiwan comes from China, Lo said.
The inclusion of the “Taiwan Strait” in the joint statement showed the grave concerns of the two leaders over Beijing’s behavior, Taiwan Thinktank executive board member Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said.
Answers to the questions as to whether the US would help Taiwan defend itself and whether Japan would support the US in defending Taiwan are getting clearer, Lai said.
The peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait no longer depend on the four-way interaction between the US, Japan, China and Taiwan, but the tripartite relationship between the US-Japan alliance, China and Taiwan, he said.
Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂), chairman and president of the Institute for National Policy Research, which organized the forum, said that the summit created an impression that Washington and Tokyo are deepening their cooperation, especially where it relates to the US-Japan Security Treaty.
Such developments came amid China’s increased military maneuvers around Taiwan, its passage of the Coast Guard Law, and the massing of more than 200 Chinese fishing boats, suspected of being militia vessels, in the South China Sea, he said.
Ma Cheng-Kun (馬振坤), director of the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies at National Defense University, believed that although tensions are high, all indications are that neither the US, China nor Taiwan wants a war.
Recent encounters between Chinese and US warships in the region have not resulted in standoffs, unlike what happened in 2013, when a Chinese warship maneuvered to intercept the guided missile cruiser the USS Cowpens, which was tailing China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier, he said.
However, the US, China and Taiwan’s preparation for a possible conflict indicate they all anticipate an unplanned encounter, emphasizing the need to find a way to break the vicious cycle that has placed relations in a downward spiral.
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