The mention of the Taiwan Strait in a communique issued after a meeting of G7 leaders highlighted Taiwan’s growing strategic importance, due largely to its economic strength and location near important sea lanes, an academic said yesterday.
Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor in National Chung Cheng University’s Institute of Strategic and International Affairs, said the statement reflected “Taiwan’s importance to the whole world.”
The communique was released on the last day of the meeting held from Friday to Sunday in Cornwall, England.
“We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues,” it said. “We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas, and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions.”
It was the first time the annual leaders’ meeting of the world’s seven wealthiest liberal democracies included Taiwan Strait issues in its communique since the G7’s predecessor, the G6, was formed in 1975.
Taiwan’s increasingly significant role in the region was largely due to its economic importance in semiconductor and silicon wafer supply chains, and its location near an important sea lane, Lin said.
Under the so-called “interlinkage of four seas” theory, what happens in the Taiwan Strait could also affect the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea, he said.
Any change to the situation in the South China Sea, Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula or Japan could have an impact on the global economy, particularly in an era of economic globalization, he added.
“Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, no country would want instability in the Taiwan Strait,” he added.
Chao Chun-shan (趙春山), an honorary professor in China studies at Tamkang University, addressed the “interlinkage of four seas” theory in an article published in 2018.
He regarded the East China Sea, South China Sea, Yellow Sea and Taiwan Strait as four flashpoints in the East Asian region after the Cold War.
“The areas look independent of each other, but actually influence each other. It is like if you pull one hair, the whole body moves,” he wrote.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research analyst Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌) said that China’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” and incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in the past two years have raised concerns among countries in the region.
When former US president Donald Trump was in office, the US tried to pull Europe into the Asia-Pacific region, hoping to counter China with a US-Europe alliance, Shu said.
US President Joe Biden has introduced a more refined diplomatic policy, which he has combined with economic power to achieve that goal, Shu added.
Since taking office in January, Biden has said on several occasions that the US would unite its allies to confront challenges from China, and would put human rights at the center of its diplomatic policy.
At the G7 summit, leaders of the allied countries joined Biden’s effort to some extent.
In the communique, the G7 countries pledged to promote their values by “calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang and those rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.”
In a Facebook post in Chinese, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday thanked G7 member states for their “resolute support.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said that he hoped the G7 communique, aside from bringing attention to Taiwan, would also help the nation’s efforts to participate in international organizations.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
RSS