Last night, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) returned to Taiwan from China. His visit reveals that the idea of "China" is embedded in his political genes, and it has led to a highly charged response from the Taiwanese public, who either love or detest him for it. They have made their feelings clear through demonstrations of support and protest during his departure and his return.
And when Lien and Chinese President Hu Jintao (
In the past the pan-blue camp only flirted with China. Now, Lien's visit has brought the relationship to a more substantial level. The KMT has direct contact with the CCP and has established a platform for party-to-party relations.
This is bitterly ironic. The Presidential Office is only half a kilometer from KMT headquarters. Yet the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have failed to establish a platform for party-to-party relations in the five years of Chen Shui-bian's (
The Lien-Hu memorandum says that the two sides should establish a military confidence-building mechanism. This is little more than hot air, given that the KMT and the DPP have failed to agree on basic military matters. As a result of a pan-blue boycott, the arms-procurement bill has languished in the legislature for years. Before confidence-building mechanisms can be put in place, it is first necessary to establish military stability across the Taiwan Strait. If the military disparity is too wide, putting our cards on the table will only invite China to use force.
The top priority therefore is to monitor the military situation through international inspections. This is the only way to achieve peace. Preaching peace with a hostile nation without building a force sufficient to repel an invasion is empty talk.
During his trip, Lien said that he, his family and his party had historical links with China. We want to remind him that he only spent 10 years in China as a child, and that it was his 60-year career in Taiwan that gave him affluence and influence. The KMT existed in Taiwan is much longer than its history in mainland. In Taiwan, it has a 60-year history. Lien's desire, like his party, to indulge in nostalgia is understandable, but regardless of any connection Lien and his party have with China, his actions should give absolute priority to the Taiwanese people.
Lien's trip has succeeded in cementing a place, however small, in China's history. It has also generated reasonable suspicion that he is preparing to act treacherously against Taiwan. On his return, Lien should present Chen with a report on his trip. He should also instruct the KMT legislative caucus to end its boycott of the arms-procurement budget. This will help repair the damage he has done to his image among Taiwanese people.
Lien must show that domestic stability is on his agenda, otherwise he will have demonstrated that Taiwan's basic interests do not coincide with his own.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS