“Why not form diplomatic relations?” has long been a catchphrase for people venting their frustration of Taiwan’s diplomatic isolation.
Due to Taiwan’s intensifying and deepening relations with the US, Japan and other nations, skeptics with a sour grapes mentality have resorted to remarks like “why not form diplomatic relations if things are looking great?”
At a public forum where the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) proposed converting land from Taipei Municipal Neihu Junior High School into office space, skeptics called on the US to form diplomatic relations with Taiwan so that it is allowed to lease extra land for office expansion.
This is an extreme dualistic perspective that only assesses the relations of two nations by the establishment of diplomatic relations while dismissing de facto relations. Despite having formal ties, does the US enjoy a better relationship with China than with Taiwan?
In past 12 months, former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan; the US bipartisan congressional delegation to Taiwan led by Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee; and Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) trip to Japan to offer his condolences in the wake of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s murder have all been diplomatic breakthroughs.
Nonetheless, the skeptics chose to overlook that there is a large gray area between formal and informal diplomatic relations, while turning a blind eye to substantial breakthroughs.
The biggest fallacy of blaming other countries for not forming diplomatic relations with Taiwan is to commit a reverse causality error. If China had not been pressuring other countries, or former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) had not strongly pushed for a “one China” principle by saying that “Gentlemen [Republic of China] cannot coexist with thugs [the Chinese Communist Party]” (漢賊不兩立), Taiwan would not be in such a difficult situation.
The expansion of the AIT’s offices is now twisted as a measure for the US to evacuate its citizens if war ever breaks out between China and Taiwan. This kind of farcical remark remind Vietnamese of the fall of Saigon.
Before the fall of Saigon in April 1975, the US conducted the biggest evacuation in history, where more than 7,000 US civilians and others were evacuated with helicopters from the city.
This April 15, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined a ceremony to break ground on a US$1.2 billion US embassy compound in Hanoi, Vietnamese were more than happy to welcome the secretary as the construction is expected to take six years, create jobs for about 1,800 local people and contribute US$350 million to Vietnam’s economy.
As nations around the world are seeking closer ties with the US, Taiwan cannot afford to be left behind for the presence of a few anti-US people.
Chen Chang-jih
Taipei City
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of