Washington’s “one China” policy could be “unsustainable,” US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific Chairman Matt Salmon said on Wednesday.
“I am wondering if it is time for us to look at tweaking that policy a little bit,” he told a subcommittee meeting on the strategic impact of China’s economic and military growth.
“Things have changed,” he said. “Taiwan is now a thriving democracy and a lot of the policies that we have toward it right now seem to be outdated,” Salmon said.
He said that Beijing’s promise to have “one China,” but two systems for Hong Kong had turned out to be a joke.
“They do not even have the ability to choose their own chief executive and there is no universal suffrage in Hong Kong,” Salmon said.
He said that Taiwan was watching developments in Hong Kong closely and certainly did not want that kind of “unification.”
“They have a thriving democracy that works and when they see how Hong Kong is treated they say: ‘Not on your life — that is not for us,’” Salmon said.
China used “lousy, stupid politics” to stop Taiwan gaining international space and joining international organizations, he said.
“They cannot even participate in Interpol, where they should at least have observer status,” Salmon said.
“It is ludicrous, the walking on eggshells that we do to try to appease China on this ‘one China’ policy thing,” he said.
Jerome Cohen, senior fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, who was testifying before the subcommittee, said that whoever replaces President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is going to create “a new kind of difficulty” in cross-strait relations.
He said that Ma had reached the limit of making agreements with China that did not prejudice the security of Taiwan.
“The people of Taiwan are expressing themselves and they want to have more say in Taiwan’s future,” Cohen said.
He said that at the same time, China appeared to be getting more nationalistic and less patient. Over the next few years, Cohen predicted, tensions over the Taiwan Strait would increase.
Salmon called on the administration of US President Barack Obama to provide more clarity of its policies.
“What are we going to do to uphold the Taiwan Relations Act?” he asked.
American Enterprise Institute resident researcher Derek Scissors suggested that if the US completes the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, it could let Taiwan join before China, which would do something “to change the recognition of the two countries.”
Salmon said there was “support across the board” for Taiwan joining the TPP in the second round.
He said the support from US Democrats and Republicans for Taiwan joining the TPP in advance of China was “very robust.”
Cohen said that Taiwan should do more on its own and should lead an effort to develop imaginative proposals to encourage a settlement of tensions and issues in the South China Sea.
“There is a way for Taiwan to help, just as they managed to reach a fisheries agreement with Japan in the East China Sea,” he said.
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,
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
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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