Democratic partners should let Beijing know that coercing Taiwan would have “incalculable consequences,” former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said in Taipei yesterday.
China’s belligerence toward Taiwan has been growing over the past few years, Abbott said in his keynote address at the annual Yushan Forum.
“Sensing that its relative power might have peaked, with its population aging, its economy slowing and its finances creaking, it’s quite possible that Beijing could lash out disastrously very soon,” he said, adding that democratic partners around the globe, as friends of Taiwan, should let Beijing know that any coercion attempts would have “incalculable consequences.”
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
The world has benefited from China’s productivity, including Australia, which supplied iron ore, coal and gas to China, he said.
“Australia has no issue with China. We welcome trade, investment and visits, just not further hectoring about being the chewing gum on China’s boot,” he said.
If the “drums of war” can be heard in the region, it is not Australia that is beating them, he said, citing Chinese professor Victor Gao (高志凱) — a translator of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) — as threatening Australia by asking if it wants to be a target of a possible nuclear war after Washington agreed to help Canberra obtain nuclear-powered submarines.
The Taiwan Strait is not the world’s only potential flashpoint, “but nowhere is the struggle between liberty and tyranny more stark than across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
“China’s belligerence is all self-generated,” he said. “It’s Beijing that’s created the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — linking the United States, Japan, India and Australia.”
Referring to the US Department of State’s “rock solid” commitment to Taiwan, Abbott said: “I don’t think America could stand by and watch Taiwan swallowed up. I don’t think Australia should be indifferent to the fate of a fellow democracy of almost 25 million people.”
Washington has said it would collaborate with Beijing when it can, and be adversarial when it must, but “Taiwan will be the test,” he added.
“For the democratic world, that means a readiness to support this fellow democracy, including by welcoming Taiwan into the [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for] Trans-Pacific Partnership [CPTPP],” he said.
China could never be admitted to the trade bloc while engaged in a trade dispute with Australia and predatory trading worldwide, he said.
“Nothing is more pressing right now than solidarity with Taiwan, if we want a better world,” Abbott said before closing his speech, urging Taiwan to “stay free.”
During a news conference held on the sidelines of the forum, Abbott was asked about Taiwan’s application to join the CPTPP.
“Taiwan more than meets the criteria,” considering it is willing to subscribe to the pact’s rules and a rules-based international order, rather than changing the rules, he said.
He said that he could see no reason for other CPTPP members to object to Taiwan’s bid, unless they are pressured by China.
Fortifying the trade pact is one of the Australian government’s priorities, he added.
“We just want to trade fairly with everyone” and expect partners to reciprocate, he said, adding that China has treated Australia unfairly over the past three or four years.
Abbott, who arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, is due to leave today.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘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
RSS