US President Donald Trump appears to be downplaying the Taiwan issue, given his omission of the topic from public discussions of talks with China, experts said yesterday.
Only China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) highlighted “China’s principled position on the Taiwan question, underscoring that Taiwan’s return to China is an integral part of the post-[World] war [II] international order” during a telephone call between the two leaders on Monday.
A social media post Trump wrote about the call did not mention Taiwan.
Photo: AP
From Monday’s omission as well as Trump’s speeches over the past few months, it is evident that he wants to downplay the Taiwan issue in terms of US-China relations and Japan-China relations, Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Ding Shuh-fan (丁樹範) said.
The two also did not discuss Taiwan during their meeting the sidelines of this year’s APEC summit in South Korea, Ding said.
It is interesting that Trump wants to downplay the Taiwan issue, perhaps due to its sensitivity or perhaps because of leverage he can derive from it, Ding said, adding that the silence is a good thing for Taiwan on some level.
The US and China highlighting different parts of a conversation, while neither denying nor affirming what the other side said, is an established routine for US-China talks, said Yen Chen-shen (嚴震生), a professor in National Chengchi University’s Department of Political Science.
Trump was not in a position to support or criticize Japan’s position, and Washington and Beijing could only continue their discussions by refraining from commenting on the issue or refuting China’s comments, Yen said, referring to a spat between China and Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on a potential invasion of Taiwan.
Once either the US or China have stated that it does not agree with the other on the Taiwan issue, it would likely be a moot point in future meetings, he added.
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the Washington-based German Marshall Fund, said that the telephone call might have been initiated by Trump, as he might have wanted to “solicit Xi’s help” given the attention on a Russia-Ukraine peace plan proposed by Trump.
“It is likely that Xi opted to use the opportunity to make a statement about Taiwan,” Glaser said in an e-mail.
Trump understands that Taiwan “is a third-rail issue in US-China relations” and has been “very cautious when talking about Taiwan, including when he has been asked whether the US would defend Taiwan if attacked,” she said.
Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, said that China does not expect the US to abandon Taiwan.
However, “Xi’s growing confidence in his relationship with Trump — and the warm afterglow of the APEC summit — has him sensing an opportunity to use Washington to gain diplomatic leverage against Tokyo,” he said.
Trump’s call was a chance for Beijing to gauge his administration’s stance on the issue, send the message that Washington should not support Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan and remind Trump of the highly sensitive nature of cross-strait issues, said Wu Xinbo (吳心伯), an adviser to the Chinese government and director at Fudan University’s Center for American Studies.
“The US should handle the Taiwan issue very carefully,” Wu said, adding that he expects the issue to feature more prominently between now and Trump’s expected visit to Beijing in April.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and CNA
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.
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
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
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
RSS