The US has dismissed criticism that US President Barack Obama’s much-publicized pivot toward Asia is running out of steam.
“Beginning in 2009, the president made a strategic commitment to rebalance US foreign policy toward Asia,” the National Security Council’s East Asian Affairs senior director Evan Medeiros said.
Addressing a special briefing for foreign reporters, Medeiros said the president and his Cabinet had increased the amount of time, energy, resources and mindshare devoted to protecting and promoting US economic and security interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
He said the fundamental strategic decision to do so had been based on a “clear-eyed assessment” of US interests.
Medeiros said there was a strong demand from the region for enhanced US engagement.
Referring to moves at the UN over the past days pointing toward more US involvement in Syria and Iran, he said that events had generated a lot of attention on the Middle East.
“I am here to say simply that the rebalance to Asia is alive and well and is going to be reflected in lots of important activities over the next few weeks,” Medeiros said. “The US is a global super power.”
“We can work on the crisis of the day and continue to invest in our long term strategic interests which is what the rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific is all about,” he said.
“We can walk in Asia and chew gum in the Middle East at the same time without a problem,” Medeiros said.
He stressed that in the coming month, Obama, US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel would all be visiting Asian countries.
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Russel who also briefed said the US had a “huge national interest” in the stability of the region.
However, as reported in the Taipei Times earlier this week, there are now widespread doubts in Washington about the rebalancing or pivot.
A panel of military analysts questioned during a meeting at the conservative Heritage Foundation if massive defense cuts and reductions in the overall US military structure would even allow a pivot to continue.
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) China scholar Michael Mazza wrote in a paper earlier this month that with all eyes focused on Syria the peace that had held in Asia for the past three decades continued to “slowly slip away.”
Recent developments in the South China Sea pointed to a less stable future, he said.
There was evidence that China was preparing to build a structure on the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), Mazza said.
“And China isn’t the only country building on disputed territory in the South China Sea,” he said.
“Taipei, which has likewise seen a downturn in relations with Manila this year, has announced plans to construct a new wharf on Taiping Island [Itu Aba, 太平島], the largest of the disputed Spratlys Islands [Nansha Islands, 南沙群島], which Taiwan has long occupied,” Mazza said.
“The new dock will accommodate large supply ships and naval frigates. These investments in infrastructure, which will include upgrades to an airstrip on the island, will enhance Taiwan’s ability to defend Taiping Island as well as to more effectively project power into the South China Sea,” he said.
“Other disputants cannot help but wonder if Taipei and Beijing are coordinating their moves in the region. In fact, they are not, but the optics may put additional strains on Taiwan’s relations in Southeast Asia,” Mazza said.
Earlier this summer, Mazza wrote in another AEI paper that although Taiwan’s potential role in the US pivot toward Asia had been largely ignored, the nation was uniquely poised to be an important partner in the security component of the pivot.
“The US should help Taiwan shore up its air and sea defenses so that it can assist in deterring potential Chinese aggression, thus contributing to stability in the region,” he said.
‘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
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
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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
RSS