Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate hopeful Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) has a message of assurance for voters concerned about the prospect of war in the Taiwan Strait: If he becomes president, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will not invade, because he does not advocate for Taiwanese independence.
Gou’s advisers have apparently impressed upon him that the issue of Taiwanese independence is “too provocative” in the current tense environment. Despite that the government has never advocated for independence, Gou’s assurances would be welcomed by the more credulous members of the electorate, especially as he maintains that the economy is the most pressing issue at hand.
In an open letter to Gou posted on Facebook, United Microelectronics Corp founder and former chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠) disagreed, saying that the economy comes first in normal times, but when the CCP is threatening an invasion that would see Taiwanese killed or incarcerated, banished and brainwashed, these are not normal times. For Tsao — who wrote that at no point has any Chinese official said that committing to opposing independence would result in the CCP’s refusal to invade — the economy can wait.
Gou’s message that approaching the issue with an appeal to reason and shared prosperity betrays a misunderstanding of the severity of the situation and of the nature of the CCP. That he seeks the KMT’s presidential nomination and is trying not to be “too provocative” is no excuse. What the nation needs are candidates with credible vision.
On Sunday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met in Seoul, the second summit between the nations in less than two months, following 12 years in which there were no official bilateral visits at all. Both leaders are willing to normalize relations. During Yoon’s trip to Tokyo in March, he and Kishida announced plans to resume sharing military intelligence and restore Japan’s status as a favored trading partner.
In a post-summit news conference, Kishida said that “the international situation surrounding us also makes cooperation between Japan and South Korea indispensable.” Kishida has faced his own political challenges at home, preparing his nation for the emerging “international situation” — not just the threat of North Korea’s nuclear missile program, but also the CCP’s increased assertiveness and the possibility of a “Taiwan contingency” that would inevitably draw the Japan Self-Defense Forces in.
However, Japanese largely support an increased defense budget and are aware of the threat China poses. Yoon has a far higher mountain to climb in terms of public support and domestic opposition. Opinion polls show that a majority of South Koreans are unhappy with his efforts to mend ties with Japan, while the opposition — including some public and civic groups — says that Tokyo should make renewed apologies for the colonial era and the treatment of South Korean “comfort women” during World War II.
His rapprochement with Japan is politically risky, and he faces legislative elections next year, but he understands the importance of unity among like-minded partners, and is under no illusions about the regional tensions, as demonstrated during his visit to Washington last month.
Like Yoon, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr understands the importance of aligning with the US to protect his nation’s interests, taking a different path from his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. We have yet to see such proactive vision or awareness in the opposition presidential hopefuls in Taiwan, from Gou, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) or Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). It is time that we did.
US aerospace company Boeing Co has in recent years been involved in numerous safety incidents, including crashes of its 737 Max airliners, which have caused widespread concern about the company’s safety record. It has recently come to light that titanium jet engine parts used by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus SE were sold with falsified documentation. The source of the titanium used in these parts has been traced back to an unknown Chinese company. It is clear that China is trying to sneak questionable titanium materials into the supply chain and use any ensuing problems as an opportunity to
It’s not every month that the US Department of State sends two deputy assistant secretary-level officials to Taiwan, together. Its rarer still that such senior State Department policy officers, once on the ground in Taipei, make a point of huddling with fellow diplomats from “like-minded” NATO, ANZUS and Japanese governments to coordinate their multilateral Taiwan policies. The State Department issued a press release on June 22 admitting that the two American “representatives” had “hosted consultations in Taipei” with their counterparts from the “Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” The consultations were blandly dubbed the “US-Taiwan Working Group on International Organizations.” The State
The Chinese Supreme People’s Court and other government agencies released new legal guidelines criminalizing “Taiwan independence diehard separatists.” While mostly symbolic — the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never had jurisdiction over Taiwan — Tamkang University Graduate Institute of China Studies associate professor Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), an expert on cross-strait relations, said: “They aim to explain domestically how they are countering ‘Taiwan independence,’ they aim to declare internationally their claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan and they aim to deter Taiwanese.” Analysts do not know for sure why Beijing is propagating these guidelines now. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), deciphering the
Many local news media last week reported that COVID-19 is back, citing doctors’ observations and the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) statistics. The CDC said that cases would peak this month and urged people to take preventive measures. Although COVID-19 has never been eliminated, it has become more manageable, and restrictions were dropped, enabling people to return to their normal way of life due to decreasing hospitalizations and deaths. In Taiwan, mandatory reporting of confirmed cases and home isolation ended in March last year, while the mask mandate at hospitals and healthcare facilities stopped in May. However, the CDC last week said the number