The Sunflower movement against the government’s handling of the cross-strait service trade agreement has minimized the potential for Taiwan to achieve political breakthroughs with China before President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leaves office in 2016, a new US Congressional report said.
“The protests also appear to have called into question the political viability of Ma’s approach to cross-strait relations and the fate of the services trade agreement will be a test of that approach’s sustainability,” the report written by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said.
The report’s release came as Center for Strategic and International Studies senior associate Joseph Bosco wrote in the National Interest that the Sunflower protests made it clear that the prospect of the nation’s peaceful unification with China under Beijing’s present administration will never be acceptable to Taiwanese.
“Strategic thinkers in Beijing need to return to the drawing board on China’s long-term relationship with Taiwan,” wrote Bosco, who served as the country desk officer for China at the Pentagon.
The Congressional report said that Taiwan’s local elections in November, and its legislative and presidential elections in 2016 could also slow down or limit advances in cross-strait economic pacts and other cooperation agreements.
“Building on recent progress on cross-strait cooperation could become less important for Ma as he focuses on domestic priorities, including improving the economy and positioning the [Chinese Nationalist Party] KMT for success,” the report said.
“Cross-strait dialogue on political issues also is unlikely to take place during the remainder of Ma’s term,” the report said.
“Political talks with Beijing are a sensitive issue for the Taiwan public, because of concern that such talks might move the sides closer to unification. According to the most recent survey of attitudes in Taiwan regarding cross-strait political relations, the vast majority of the Taiwan people supported maintaining the status quo,” it added.
Bosco wrote that the US’ “policy vagueness” on how it would react if China attacks Taiwan has encouraged Beijing to build an arsenal of attack submarines and anti-ship ballistic missiles to deter Washington from intervening on Taipei’s behalf.
“If and when an attack on Taiwan occurs, Congress will not allow this or a future administration to equivocate and it is better for China to understand that now rather than later,” he wrote.
Bosco said US President Barack Obama can eliminate this “dangerous” ambiguity by finally moving ahead with Washington’s stalled submarine provision program for Taiwan and by selling it the advanced F-16s it needs to bolster its self-defense capabilities.
“Those actions would meet the letter and spirit of the venerable Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and help ensure the regional peace and stability it was intended to serve,” he concluded.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS