Tensions over Taiwan risk leading to a miscalculation between the US and China, as both countries step up activity around the nation, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said on Wednesday night.
“We should be concerned,” Lee said in an interview. “I don’t think it’s going to war overnight, but it is in a situation where you can have a mishap or a miscalculation and be in a very delicate situation.”
Washington has significantly boosted engagement with Taipei, China has increasingly tested Taiwan’s air defenses and the government in Taipei has taken steps such as printing passports with the name “Taiwan” on them, Lee said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
Photo: Bloomberg
“All these moves raise suspicions and tensions and anxieties, and make it more likely that a mishap or miscalculation can happen,” he said, adding: “Everybody says the right thing, but if you look at what is happening it is not a static situation.”
Lee’s comments came shortly after US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) concluded their first face-to-face summit, agreeing to continue talking on a range of topics even as they continue to spar over issues such as Taiwan.
After reassuring Xi on Monday that the US does not take a position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, a day later Biden described the nation as “independent” to reporters before quickly walking back the comment.
In a separate interview yesterday, Singaporean Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said that “the probability of an actual conflict is low” between China and Taiwan, adding that it is an issue everyone needs to be concerned with.
He said he hoped tensions could be lowered so there is sustained peace between them.
“The real risk is either an accident or a miscalculation,” Balakrishnan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “And the more there’s engagement, there’s talk, there’s discussion and there’s hopefully a meeting of minds. I think that lowers the risk considerably.”
Lee said it was good that Biden and Xi could meet and “speak frankly” with each other even though all problems would not be resolved in one meeting.
He said that in the US there is a consensus that Beijing is “a serious problem for them,” while many Chinese believe the US wants to slow them down and “stop their emergence.”
Lee also said that the US should keep moving forward on trade with Asia, even if it is politically unfeasible to re-enter the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 11-nation trade deal that former US president Donald Trump exited.
The US would still have a role in the region even if China joined the agreement given its allies and investments, Lee added.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition