Fifty-six percent of respondents in a poll in the US said they would support the US and its allies coming to Taiwan’s defense in the event of a Chinese invasion, up from 47 percent in August last year, Newsweek reported on Friday. Only 12 percent opposed the idea.
“You’re seeing a shift in American public opinion from the ‘don’t know’ and ‘no’ sections to the ‘yes’ side,” Raymond Kuo (郭泓均), director of the Taiwan Policy Initiative at Rand Corp, told the magazine.
The survey also found that 41 percent viewed China as “the greatest threat” to the US, exceeding the 35 percent who said Russia.
Other polls have also indicated that there is rising anti-China sentiment among Americans, including one by Gallup that found a record low 15 percent of US adults viewed China favorably, down from 72 percent in 1989. A survey by The Economist and YouGov showed that three-quarters of respondents viewed China as either an enemy (40 percent) or unfriendly to the US (35 percent). Prior to 2020, 20 percent viewed China as an enemy.
This shift could be partly due to international recognition of Taiwan as a democratic ally and economic partner, possibly exacerbated by China’s human rights record in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, its threat to global economic well-being and democratic values, and its attempts to disrupt the international order.
By embracing Russia in an “unlimited friendship” instead of condemning the invasion of Ukraine, China has proven itself to be an accomplice of authoritarian hegemony. Unsurprisingly, European public opinion of China has also plummeted.
Countries are increasingly naming China as a “threat” in national reports, not merely a “competitor.” In Asia, Japan and South Korea list China as a major threat. Polling has shown that China is perceived as India’s greatest threat (43 percent) due to a border dispute, while a vast majority of respondents in Australia saw China a military threat to the country with a trust in China at record low.
Australia fell out with China after Beijing imposed trade barriers on Australian exports after a spat about the origins of COVID-19. Now more Australian are concerned about China’s territorial ambition in Taiwan strait, South China sea and the Pacific region.
China’s military expansion in the South China Sea has raised alarm among countries in the region. The Philippines has expanded its military cooperation with the US, launching their largest-ever joint drill and reopening bases to Washington.
While ignoring his nation’s militarization of islands in the South China Sea, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian (黃溪連) on Friday last week “advised” Manila not to keep “stoking the fire by giving the US access to Philippine bases near Taiwan,” saying that it should “unequivocally oppose Taiwan independence” if the country “cares genuinely about the overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan.”
Huang’s remarks provoked outrage in the Philippines, with some lawmakers demanding that he be expelled. “China seems to be issuing a threat not just against the Philippines as a country, but to innocent overseas Filipino workers who were obligated to work abroad to create better lives for their families,” Philippine Representative France Castro said.
The Philippine Defense Council said that cooperation with the US aims to improve their defense capabilities. Some lawmakers said that China should follow the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which rejected China’s claims in the South China Sea.
Resentment over China’s expansionism is on the rise and for good reason: Beijing’s coercive behavior in the Taiwan Strait is part of its ambition for a global authoritarian hegemony.
Like-minded countries should establish a defense network, not only to aid Taiwan if the need arises, but to protect other countries from China’s aggression.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has prioritized modernizing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to rival the US military, with many experts believing he would not act on Taiwan until the PLA is fully prepared to confront US forces. At the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress in 2022, Xi emphasized accelerating this modernization, setting 2027 — the PLA’s centennial — as the new target, replacing the previous 2035 goal. US intelligence agencies said that Xi has directed the PLA to be ready for a potential invasion of Taiwan by 2027, although no decision on launching an attack had been made. Whether
A chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) was found on a Huawei Technologies Co artificial intelligence (AI) processor, indicating a possible breach of US export restrictions that have been in place since 2019 on sensitive tech to the Chinese firm and others. The incident has triggered significant concern in the IT industry, as it appears that proxy buyers are acting on behalf of restricted Chinese companies to bypass the US rules, which are intended to protect its national security. Canada-based research firm TechInsights conducted a die analysis of the Huawei Ascend 910B AI Trainer, releasing its findings on Oct.
In honor of President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, my longtime friend and colleague John Tkacik wrote an excellent op-ed reassessing Carter’s derecognition of Taipei. But I would like to add my own thoughts on this often-misunderstood president. During Carter’s single term as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, despite numerous foreign policy and domestic challenges, he is widely recognized for brokering the historic 1978 Camp David Accords that ended the state of war between Egypt and Israel after more than three decades of hostilities. It is considered one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.
In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, titled “The Upside on Uncertainty in Taiwan,” Johns Hopkins University professor James B. Steinberg makes the argument that the concept of strategic ambiguity has kept a tenuous peace across the Taiwan Strait. In his piece, Steinberg is primarily countering the arguments of Tufts University professor Sulmaan Wasif Khan, who in his thought-provoking new book The Struggle for Taiwan does some excellent out-of-the-box thinking looking at US policy toward Taiwan from 1943 on, and doing some fascinating “what if?” exercises. Reading through Steinberg’s comments, and just starting to read Khan’s book, we could already sense that
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