Taiwan should learn from Ukraine’s creative communications with the world in the wake of Russia’s invasion, Hoover Institution senior fellow Larry Diamond said on Monday.
Diamond was speaking in San Francisco as part of a roundtable on China organized by the institution at Stanford University.
Ukraine in its response to the Russian invasion has adopted imaginative ways of communicating with the outside world, Diamond said.
Photo: CNA
For example, never before has the leader of a democratic nation spoken to another nation’s legislature while under siege as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has done, he said, praising the novel use of videoconference technology.
Zelenskiy has spoken via videoconference with the European Parliament, the British parliament and US Congress, and plans to speak to the Japanese parliament today.
Scenes of courage and messages from Ukraine have touched hearts the world over, with Zelenskiy’s olive-green T-shirt becoming a symbol for the nation’s resistance, Diamond said.
In Taiwan’s case, although President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) cannot formally visit the US for fear of enraging Beijing, Diamond said that it might be possible to hold talks via videoconference instead.
Considering that Taiwan already has a vibrant communications and social media landscape, Diamond said it could learn from Ukraine and anticipates dialogue once the conflict subsides.
As opposed to democratic leaders, autocratic rulers such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are “risk-takers,” Diamond said.
The world underestimated Putin’s willingness to take risks, but now everyone will know not to underestimate Xi, he said.
As for when Xi might act against Taiwan, Diamond predicted that “two to five years” is the most likely timeframe.
Xi is unlikely to make any aggressive moves until after he successfully extends his presidency and begins his new term, he said.
Meanwhile, former US national security adviser H.R. McMaster suggested that the US “do what it did not do” for Ukraine in 2014 and ensure that Taiwan has the defense capabilities it needs.
He is concerned about two upcoming dates: this autumn, when the Chinese Communist Party holds its 20th Congress, and in 2025, when its advanced weapons systems are expected to enter service.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS