Cross-strait tensions could be eased in the short term as China seeks to ink an agreement with US on how to handle issues related to climate change, Canadian journalist Gwynne Dyer said yesterday.
“The Chinese government’s priority is to get the climate change under control before the disasters strike home,” he said. “It needs an agreement with the US to make that happen. For political reasons, it is not possible for China to make a commitment itself until the Americans do … that requires good relations between China and the US. That in turn means that there must not be any crisis between Beijing and Taipei. I think it is true, and will continue to be true for several decades.”
Matters may change in the long run, however, if there is no agreement between Washington and Beijing, he said.
“Because then you do have serious warming, internal crisis of food, then of course there could be a temptation in Beijing to distract the attention of very unhappy citizens at home with a confrontation with Taiwan, but I think it’s a long way down the road, we’re not there now,” he said.
Dyer said he does not think China will use nuclear weapons to settle the political issue with Taiwan.
The London-based journalist wrote Climate Wars, which was published last year. The book examines the consequences of climate change and how it will potentially lead nations to war and conflict.
Dyer was invited by a local magazine to address the issue at a forum on climate change.
Accommodating natural disaster victims and shortages of food and water supply were two emerging problems brought by the climate change, he told a press conference yesterday, citing relations between Bangladesh and India as an example.
India is building a 4,000km-long fence along its border with Bangladesh to prevent an influx of illegal immigrants, he said, adding Bangladeshis would be forced to migrate if their country is gradually eroded by rising sea levels. A refugee problem could worsen relations between the two countries.
Food supply in Southern China may soon be tightened as waters flowing from the Tibetan plateau used to irrigate rice fields has been reduced, he said.
He also said Taiwan must try to be self-sufficient in food supply.
It is relatively easy now for the countries to cooperate in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, because in general the governments are secure, the food issue isn’t imminent, and the conflicts are only potential, he said.
“Once the governments become instable, the food issue becomes real, it would be difficult for countries to cut deals,” he said.
Dyer also urged Taiwan to voluntarily adopt the targets set by other developed nations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The EU aims to reduce the emissions by 20 percent in 2020, he said.
Steve Liu (劉必榮), a professor at Soochow University, said books like Climate Wars have helped elevate the issues involved in climate change to the level of national security issues.
“But I agree more with Thomas Friedman, that they must be linked to business opportunities that can be created through the development of green energy, which gives people the incentives to deal with it,” Liu said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS