With many European countries reshaping their policies toward the Indo-Pacific region to counteract China’s aggressive expansionism, Taiwan could be more active on the global stage by fortifying ties with its partners.
Some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members, including former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), have been touting the idea that the government should prioritize cross-strait relations over other diplomatic relations. They have said that only when cross-strait relations improve can Taiwan expand diplomatic and economic ties with other countries.
That might have been be true decades ago when many other countries could not even tell Taiwan and China apart, but the world order has changed.
Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye’s (盧沙野) attempt to pressure French Senator Alain Richard into dropping his plan to visit Taiwan has backfired, sparking more resentment toward the Chinese government, as happened when it was found that Beijing bullied Czech officials over their affinity with Taiwan.
With US warships continuously transiting the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, France last month sent its SNA Emeraude nuclear submarine, accompanied by support ship the BSAM Seine, to transit the South China Sea, with the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier and a German frigate expected to follow in coming months.
Appealing to freedom of navigation and a rules-based international order, the maritime powers’ deployments signal their attempts to shape a multilateral network to prevent China’s expansionism from growing wilder and affecting their interests.
With its strategic location on the first island chain, Taiwan should boost its cooperation with foreign forces by sharing logistics resources and intelligence about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. That might help with the government’s indigenous submarine development program, which needs to meet a tight schedule, having to deliver its first submarine by 2025.
Among major European powers, the UK appears to be working more steadily to expand its influence in Asia after its exit from the EU. The UK last month applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade bloc led mainly by Australia and Japan. The move was interpreted by the government as a positive development, as it means that the bloc would consider new applicants.
“Much of the UK’s trade with Asia depends on shipping that goes through a range of Indo-Pacific choke points. Preserving freedom of navigation is therefore essential to the UK’s national interests. We already work closely with regional partners and will do more through persistent engagement by our armed forces and our wider security capacity-building,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was quoted as saying in a policy paper published on Tuesday.
British Representative to Taiwan John Dennis, in a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Thursday, also highlighted London’s tilt to the Indo-Pacific region, and its goals of investing in science and technology to tackle climate change and other global challenges with like-minded partners.
The meeting occurred after the British Office Taipei earlier this month joined Japanese and US envoys to cohost events related to disaster management held under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework in Taiwan.
While Western countries might not lavish attention on Taiwan if they were not threatened by China’s aggression, Taiwan can use the opportunity to leverage its advantages and expand its participation in international affairs, ranging from security, trade and health to technological and environmental issues.
However, global participation should be predicated on healthy internal governance. When the government is still struggling with its energy and water policies, it is questionable whether it can convince others that Taiwan is a reliable partner.
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
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