The next president of the US should “do everything in his power” to ensure that political integration between Taiwan and China remains a “far-off prospect,” a new analysis says.
Written by American Enterprise Institute (AEI) researcher Shannon Mann, the analysis was published this week on the Web site PolicyMic, which is aimed at people in their 20s — the so-called millennials — interested in US foreign policy.
PolicyMic claims to have writers in 35 countries and more than 6 million unique monthly readers.
For many of those readers, Mann’s analysis may be their first significant introduction to the Taiwan-China issue.
Promises by the administration of US President Barack Obama to deepen economic and military ties with allies in the Asia-Pacific region have fallen flat in the light of budgetary realities, Mann says.
Defense cuts totaling nearly US$1 trillion over the next decade “expose the gap between the White House’s unrealistic expectations and the reality of limited resources,” and no other ally is left more vulnerable than Taiwan, Mann says.
In the past five years, Beijing has used its influence to dissuade other countries from signing trade agreements with Taiwan and Taipei has been led into deep economic ties with China, while Chinese leaders have openly stated that economic relations with Taiwan are part of an “embedded reunification” strategy, Mann says.
“Today, the American punditocracy believes that Taiwan’s reunification with China through intensifying economic reliance is inevitable,” Mann says. “If Taiwan integrates with China, however, US strategic interests in Asia will be greatly diminished both for the US and for our regional allies.”
Should China take over Taiwan it would win major advantages, including radar sites to search for US Navy ships in the Pacific and a deep-water naval base at Suao.
The Pratas Reef would extend China’s jurisdiction another 320km and control of Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) would provide another military base in contested waters, Mann says.
Most importantly, the Taiwan Strait would become an inland waterway allowing Beijing to block Japanese and South Korean access to vital sea lanes.
“Even in the face of tremendous budget cuts, it is time to re-evaluate our policy towards mainland China and Taiwan,” Mann says. “Subsequent US administrations should help Taiwan become a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to decrease its economic reliance on China, as well as increase joint military training exercises.”
“The bottom line is that Taiwan can’t fall off the strategy-making table — tactics that encourage Taiwan to remain politically less ‘Chinese’ are necessary for US security in Asia,” Mann concludes.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,