The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises, the largest naval exercise in the region, are aimed at deepening international collaboration and interaction while strengthening tactical capabilities and flexibility in tackling maritime crises.
China was invited to participate in RIMPAC in 2014 and 2016, but it was excluded this year. The underlying reason is that Beijing’s ambitions of regional expansion and challenging the international order have raised global concern. The world has made clear its suspicions of China, and its exclusion from RIMPAC this year will bring about a sea change in years to come.
The purpose of excluding China is primarily to maintain regional security and stability. Beijing has disrupted peace, and the international community believes that its participation would not benefit the military exercise. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) flouts international law and is engaged in intimidating neighboring countries. Therefore, excluding China from RIMPAC is aimed at reducing political tensions. This decision provides insight into the perception of the CCP’s behavior among Pacific countries, including Taiwan.
The exclusion from RIMPAC will detract from China’s influence on the international stage. Furthermore, its exclusion suggests that its national defense and military tactics will take a hit from losing the opportunity to engage in military collaboration with other countries. Worse yet, it is highly likely to sour its political relationships with these countries. In the final analysis, China’s political clout will diminish because of this exclusion.
China’s absence from RIMPAC shows that the world has lost faith in the prospect of China’s peaceful rise. Taiwan and its democratic allies across the globe must unite to foil its ulterior motives and to maintain regional security. As one of the world’s democracies, Taiwan undoubtedly has a responsibility to participate in international affairs and assist in constraining China, and help safeguard democratic values and stand up to any threats that might shake the foundations of democracy.
Chen Chun is an international affairs researcher.
Translated by Chen Chi-huang
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