After World War II, Taiwan and Penghu fell into the hands of the Allied forces and came under the legal control of the US. At the time, however, Washington delegated control of the territories to the Republic of China (ROC) government of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
The way events transpired, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government was allowed to remain on Taiwan and Penghu unchallenged, and the people living there were subjected to brainwashing at the hands of the ROC. From an historical perspective, Taiwan was not governed by an “alternative China,” but rather the Taiwan Authority — the same “governing authorities on Taiwan” referred to in the US’ Taiwan Relations Act.
Since this time, China has developed unquestioned economic clout, while the Taiwan question has remained unresolved. It was this Gordian knot that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) addressed during a speech titled, “Taiwan’s national security challenges and strategies in the next decade,” at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
Tsai scrutinized the relationships between Washington, Taiwan and Penghu, Beijing and the Western Pacific region. Not only is she aware of the Achilles’ heel of Washington and Beijing, she also knows how to use it to her advantage.
Tsai expressed hope that both Washington and Beijing would understand and respect the choice of the people of Taiwan and Penghu, and said that the best strategy for all concerned would be for them to respect Taiwan’s right to live a free and democratic existence.
Tsai not only discussed the challenges, she also expressed her resolve to address them. One challenge she discussed was the need to ensure regional peace and stability. To achieve this, Taiwan needs to expand cooperation and coordination with other countries in the region, particularly with the US and its allies, she said.
The current situation in the Western Pacific region, and especially the complex nature of the Taiwan Strait, cannot be resolved by relying simply on national identity and a political stance.
On the matter of the South China Sea, Tsai said the DPP support freedom of navigation and the settlement of disputes within a multilateral framework and through international law.
More importantly, she said that there has never been animosity between Taiwanese and Chinese, but that historically there were “wars and conflicts between the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] and the KMT.”
Tsai intends to save Taiwan from the animosity between the KMT and the CCP and seek out a place for the nation within the stable framework of the West Pacific region.
The paradigm shift she is proposing has the potential to finally lift the people of Taiwan and Penghu out of the independence/ unification trap devised by politicians from the KMT and CCP. After all, these two parties remain embroiled in the same endless dispute, an argument that has got absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan and Penghu.
Joshua Tin is an economist.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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