Pundits said yesterday that Taiwan-US relations were heading toward a crisis because President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) China-leaning policies have made US intervention in cross-strait relations more difficult.
At a forum held to discuss Taiwan-China-US relations in the wake of last week’s 30th anniversary of the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), an executive member of the pro-localization Taiwan Thinktank and former director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) International Affairs Department, said that 2012 would be an important year for Taiwan’s survival.
Washington is preoccupied with the economic recession and peace-keeping work in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as nuclear challenges from Iran and North Korea, and challenges from the rise of leftist governments in Latin America. The US is likely to pay little attention to the Taiwan Strait, and therefore regards “no news as good news” when it comes to cross-strait affairs, Lai said.
Lai added that because China’s clout was increasing and the US needed China’s cooperation on a range of international and economic issues, US policymakers would not likely challenge China on issues related to Taiwan.
Current US-Taiwan policy is passive and could only be described as “crisis management and war avoidance,” said Lai, adding that the TRA would become trivial if this situation continued.
While Ma’s government was getting closer to China at an unexpected speed, China has not relaxed its tough approach toward Taiwan, Lai said. Instead it was taking every chance to control the nation in terms of economics, cross-strait negotiations, Taiwan’s diplomacy and others.
Lai said that because Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) were scheduled to step down in 2012, they likely wanted to leave a legacy and set the course for their successors.
Also, Ma’s four-year term will expire in 2012 and Beijing is likely to make an effort to help Ma win re-election, Lai said.
Lai said if the US continued to ignore the Taiwan Strait, then 2012 might be a year of dramatic change.
Former representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told the forum Ma’s government did not seek to improve Taiwan-US relations, and its China-leaning policies had not brought Taiwan any closer to the US.
He said Ma had only received good treatment from the US when he stopped in Los Angeles and San aLatin America and the Caribbean in August last year, and Washington did not approve selling F-16 fighter jets and diesel submarines that Taiwan had requested.
He said Ma was ignoring Taiwan’s democratic ally, while pushing the country toward a crisis.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS