US president-elect Donald Trump won the US election because he refused to play by the rules and his non-traditional approach to foreign policies as an incoming US president only reaffirmed his tendency to break the rules. Politicians, academia and the media have all described him as “unpredictable.”
Advocates of Sinocentrism in Taiwan and China have denounced him as a mere “businessman” who would go back on his word at every opportunity to get what he can.
Some say that Taiwanese who expect Trump to help Taiwan following his telephone call with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will be disappointed.
Chinese should be fearful of Trump. Chinese emperors and leaders, well-versed in the art of politics, have always controlled their people and neighboring nations through intimidation — specifically by creating the illusion that they are fearless and unpredictable — and promoting nationalism.
However, Trump is also unpredictable. Moreover, having run with the campaign slogan “Make America great again,” Trump is undaunted by the prospect of an arms race with China. His tactics toward China are exactly what the latter has been using toward others.
Since the time of former US president Richard Nixon and former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, who typically supported collaborating with China to counter the Soviet Union, the US has been employing a double standard that has allowed China to get away with much of what it wants. This has been an issue for so long that people have come to accept it as normal.
As Chinese-American academic Yu Ying-shih (余英時) has said, for the past several decades the US has been afraid of offending China to the point where it would compromise its principles to appease Beijing, but fortunately this problem is almost entirely cured now.
Despite pressure from Beijing, Trump has answered Tsai’s telephone call, made pungent remarks about China’s seizure of a US underwater drone, threatened to strengthen and expand the US’ nuclear weapons, and is apparently not trying to avoid initiating an arms race. He knows Beijing’s threats are mere bluff, which is essential in putting China in its place.
His aggressive stance is in line with a US Republican tradition that can be traced back to former US secretary of state John Dulles and former US president Ronald Reagan.
While Dulles prevented the spread of communism with his policy of brinkmanship, Reagan dragged down the Soviet Union by engaging it in a space race.
With its enormous land and population and a domineering attitude, China has for years ignored international rules and has often taken advantage of other nations to boost its own economy. Nevertheless, the US has finally come to realize the harm that China has done.
Beijing, which tends to be overconfident, has viewed the US’ eagerness for cooperation as a sign that it is in decline. However, the rise of Trump will likely change many things. His demand that China must play by international rules, or a trade war or arms race would be inevitable, is exactly what China has been fearing.
James Wang is a media commentator.
Translated by Tu Yu-an
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises, the largest naval exercise in the region, are aimed at deepening international collaboration and interaction while strengthening tactical capabilities and flexibility in tackling maritime crises. China was invited to participate in RIMPAC in 2014 and 2016, but it was excluded this year. The underlying reason is that Beijing’s ambitions of regional expansion and challenging the international order have raised global concern. The world has made clear its suspicions of China, and its exclusion from RIMPAC this year will bring about a sea change in years to come. The purpose of excluding China is primarily
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the