Democracies must rework multilateral strategies to counter China’s hegemonic rise amid geopolitical changes wrought by US President Donald Trump, academics and former foreign officials said yesterday at the Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue in Taipei.
Former Canadian minister of national defense Jason Kenney said that former prime minister Justin Trudeau had allowed close ties with Beijing elites to dictate the Canadian government’s China policy, but Ottawa is becoming alert to the threat posed by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) expansionist agenda on Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.
Trump’s aggressive trade policies have undermined the global consensus that China would serve as the cornerstone of international trade, and made Canada re-examine Beijing’s unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation and industrial espionage, Kenney said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
China’s meddling in Canadian internal affairs, attempts to establish a de facto police force on Canadian soil, tit-for-tat arrests of Canadian nationals for the extradition of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) and its involvement in the fentanyl trade further soured public perception of China, he said.
Canada is deepening its cooperation with Taiwan in security and technology, transiting warships and submarines through the Taiwan Strait, and increasing defense spending to a planned 5 percent of GDP from 1.3 percent, he said.
Canada’s natural resources can lessen the world’s dependence on China for critical mineral and energy exports, he said.
Trump’s levying of 35 percent tariffs and threats of annexing Canada have underscored the importance of national defense and security matters to Canadians, Kenney said.
Although Taiwan shares commonalities in culture, history and language with China, the nation should hold on to its dignity and self-identity, safeguard democracy and bolster its national defense, he said.
Japanese academic Tomohiko Taniguchi, formerly an adviser to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, said the late Abe had planned to visit Taiwan shortly before his assassination to emphasize the importance of Taiwan-Japan cooperation in regional security.
His belief that “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency” stemmed from the understanding that US military bases would lose all strategic value should China take over Taiwan, he said.
A war against Taiwan would embroil the US and Japan, regardless of their wishes and intentions, he said.
The Australian navy’s adoption of Japanese warships, naval collaboration between India and the Philippines, and the British carrier HMS Prince of Wales’ imminent visit to Japan are evidence of the growing recognition that the Indo-Pacific region must band together to counter China, Taniguchi said.
The world’s democracies are telling Xi that he would pay dearly for realizing his “Chinese Dream,” he added.
Asian nations should accept the reality that there would no return to a pre-Trump world order, said Chilamkuri Raja Mohan, a columnist at Foreign Policy and visiting professor at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies.
Indo-Pacific nations must take joint action to counter the narrative that they have been taking advantage of the US in security matters, and set conditions to encourage continued US engagement in the region, he said.
US participation and the development of new security frameworks would be indispensable for maintaining the balance of power in Asia, he said.
Political developments in the US would not change the inherent conflict of interest between Washington and Beijing, or that between China and nations on its periphery, he said.
Indo-Pacific nations must accept that China’s rising military power would not dissipate naturally and the necessity of developing an asymmetric strategy to counter China’s advantages, he said.
The US political system is not designed for forging consensus, but for the coexistence of distinct factions, he said, adding that regional governments must understand and establish relations with all US politicians to maintain their long-term strategic interests.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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