Hurricane Sandy has thrown the US presidential election into havoc, pushing foreign policy issues into the background and almost certainly ending further campaign debate on Asia.
The storm is dominating the end days of the campaign with both sides changing strategies to concentrate on weather-related reaction.
US President Barack Obama and his Republican rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, were canceling many live appearances and speeches and TV advertisements.
“They are likely glued to the weather coverage, trying to figure out which way this hurricane will make the election winds blow,” Princeton University history professor Julian Zelizer said.
Issues, such as trade with China, are unlikely to influence undecided voters anything like as much as the way candidates handle the so-called “Frankenstorm” now lashing the US’ east coast.
“The crisis offers an opportunity for Obama to act presidential in a way for which some voters are thirsting and to demonstrate the kind of command that has often been lacking,” Zelizer said.
Meanwhile, Romney must watch to see what people think of Obama’s response “because any statement from him could easily be seen as political and offer little evidence of his own ability to lead.”
Obama has canceled events in swing states to monitor the storm from the White House.
Romney, who has also stopped traveling, has turned his offices in North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia into collection centers for storm relief supplies.
The latest polls give Romney a slight lead, but the race remains far too close to call with commentators increasingly wondering if the storm might become the deciding factor.
With the storm taking over election rhetoric, it appears that the final words on Taiwan in this campaign came last week at the “China Policy Debate” organized by the Committee of 100 and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
National security adviser to the Obama campaign Jeffrey Bader and co-chair of Romney’s Asia-Pacific region working group Aaron Friedberg were asked what their candidates would do about arms sales to Taiwan in view of improved cross-strait relations.
Bader said that the Obama administration had put a great deal of emphasis on building a strong relationship with the leadership in Taiwan.
“We have handled the relationship well in the sense of giving confidence to [President] Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九),” he said.
He said that a decision had not yet been made on selling long-requested F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan and that the administration would be guided by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the Department of Defense.
Friedberg said that Taiwan faced a growing challenge to its ability to defend itself given China’s sustained buildup aimed directed at it.
“Governor Romney has specifically supported the sale of the F-16C/Ds because that is what the Taiwanese have requested,” he said.
“The way that Taiwanese domestic politics have played out thus far [has] led to a smoothing in the relationship with the mainland, but I don’t think there is any guarantee that is going to continue to be the case,” Friedberg said.
“Taiwan is a democracy and there are many people with different views. I don’t think there are many that actually support independence, but there are those who would support policies that are different from those that are currently being pursued,” he said.
“In the long run, China is not going to get what it wants from Taiwan simply by deepening economic relations and pressure. It is not going to be able to get it peacefully. And so I think there is some reason to be concerned in the longer term about how it is going to play out. But for the time being, certainly the trend has been towards stability and that’s all to the good,” Friedberg said.
Bader said it was important to appreciate what Ma had done with China and that the great risk of conflict had been taken off the table for the foreseeable future.
It was important, he said, that the US provided Taiwan with the means to “deter and dissuade” China from aggression but the thought that Taiwan could compete with China in an arms race was an illusion that Asia watchers in the US should not have and that “frankly, people in Taiwan do not have.”
Friedberg said that no one who seriously studied the problem thought Taiwan would have the capacity to defend itself on its own from China, but that it needed to be strong enough to resist Chinese attack and to make itself a difficult target.
Ultimately, he said, Taiwan would have to hope that there would be peaceful resolution and that it could count — if needed — on the help of the US.
He said that it could become more difficult in the future to sustain the “status quo” “as China’s power continues to grow.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and