In addition to assisting the government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in strengthening its bargaining chips in negotiations with Beijing, the new administration of US President Barack Obama should also reassess its Taiwan policy and map out how it would deal with Taiwan if the latter chose to align itself with China, a US academic said yesterday.
Robert Sutter, a professor with Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, made the remark at a seminar on cross-strait relations hosted by George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Sutter bluntly said that the US could give up on Taiwan if it chose to align itself with China.
It remains to be seen whether other voices will echo the remarks made by Sutter, who once worked for the CIA and the US Department of State.
Formerly known for criticizing Taiwan for showing a lack of willingness to invest in self-defense, Sutter said that Ma’s policies had been well received in the US and that he sincerely wished Ma success.
But, he added, both the US and Taiwan should think about what would happen if the government’s policies failed.
Cross-strait relations are highly disproportional, Sutter said, adding that while some progress has been made in cross-strait economic and trade development, there have been no concessions on China’s part in the principles guiding its military, diplomatic and economic policies. While Taiwan has made a lot of concessions, it has not received a proportional response from China, Sutter said. The Ma government needs to let China see that it has backup plans in the event Beijing does not make any concessions, he said.
The new US government needs to reassess the country’s relations with Taiwan, Sutter said. He asked what the US would do if Taiwan leans toward China and discrepancies occur between the strategic goals of the US and Taiwan.
Saying that, as a superpower, the US does not need Taiwan, Sutter told the seminar that if Taiwan thought it did not need help from the US, the US could take up Taiwan issues with Japan, or even China.
Also at the seminar, Shelley Rigger, a professor at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, said that large-scale protests held by demonstrators in November during Chinese envoy Chen Yun-lin’s (陳雲林) visit to Taipei were not a bad thing for Taiwan because it debunked Beijing and the international community’s illusion that Ma alone could decide on behalf of all Taiwanese.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat