The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced earlier this month that it was tightening export controls after a Washington Post investigation showed that a Taiwanese company had sold US$20 billion of sophisticated equipment to Russia since January last year. As the US and European countries pumped money and resources into Ukraine to aid its resistance against Russia, Taiwanese companies were undercutting this support by helping Russia acquire the tools it needed to keep its war going.
This is a stain on the good reputation that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has built up for Taiwan over the past few years, and is a stinging undermining of her administration’s narrative that Taiwan is part of a coalition of democracies united in resistance against authoritarianism. Coalitions are only as strong as their weakest link, and Taiwan’s negligence has undermined the democracies’ resilience, strengthened Russia and placed Ukraine in greater peril than it might not otherwise have been. The nation must do better.
Russia’s February 2022 invasion is viewed in many democratic capitals as an inflection point for the liberal international order, where what is at stake is about more than the political survival of Ukraine, profoundly important though that is for Ukrainians. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Ukraine’s resistance is a battle “between a rules-based order and a world of naked aggression.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has linked US support for Ukraine to the survival of the international order led by the US.
The democracies’ stake in Ukraine is not because to see Ukraine swing into Russia’s sphere of influence would make them more economically or militarily weaker — Ukraine’s importance does not hinge on material factors. Rather, Ukraine’s importance is that its political survival represents the survival of one of the core principles of the modern state system — namely, you do not use force to annex another country’s territory. Taiwan has a very big stake in seeing this international norm preserved.
On another level, Ukraine’s survival is a test of the validity and credibility of the security system built by the US and its allies after World War II. Ukrainians are fighting an existential war for freedom and democracy — a struggle which represents the right of a people and nation to affiliate with the EU and the West more broadly. This right is what international relations theorist and Princeton University academic John Ikenberry says is the moral underpinning behind the US’ entire post-war global project. This more than anything, is why Tsai, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and former representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) since Russia’s February 2022 invasion have so forcefully argued that Ukraine’s success would be Taiwan’s success.
This inflection point for the international order has been defined in important respects by narrative and diplomacy — where speeches and summit meetings have played a significant role in nations signalling their views on the US-led international order. China has called the US the “main instigator” of the conflict — part of its strategy to marshall an international anti-US coalition. Seeking a leadership role of a re-emerging “non-aligned” movement, Brazilian President Lula da Silva has said: “There is no use now in saying who is right, who is wrong… What we have to do is stop the war.”
Taiwan is not a member of the UN and is shut out of many international fora due to China’s gangster diplomacy, therefore it is especially important that the nation plays its diplomatic hand well — blunders have the potential to have an inordinate impact on the nation in such challenging conditions. The lax export controls must be rectified and the government must ensure that there is no repeat of further damaging episodes to Taiwan’s international reputation.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
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