World leaders’ criticism of China is part of a concerted global effort to safeguard vital shipping lanes in the Indo-Pacific region and is a boost for Taiwan, academics said after the G7 issued a call for peace across the Taiwan Strait.
The G7 leaders issued a joint communique from Cornwall, England, after their meeting on Sunday saying: “We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.”
The leaders remain “seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions,” they said.
Photo: AFP
Prospect Foundation executive director Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) on Monday said that the international community’s attention on the Strait can be gauged by the “institutionalized expressions of concern” that were on display at the G7 meeting.
The communique is the latest in a series of statements by world leaders to emphasize the importance of peace and stability across the Strait, which stemmed from the US and Japan mobilizing allies in the region, Lai said.
The participation of other nations in the formerly strategic framework of Taiwan, the US and China have upturned the underlying assumptions that governed the interactions over the Strait, he said.
The argument that Taiwan should hedge its bets between the US and China by purposeful ambiguity ceases to be viable when other nations, including Japan, Australia, India and EU members, have clearly staked out their positions, he added.
The joint communique shows China that it cannot count on isolating the US in a future confrontation, Lai said, adding that joint communiques are strong, binding agreements that cannot be easily walked back from.
The communique is evidence of established custom and usage that creates the basis of international law, which in turn could serve as a powerful security guarantee for Taiwan, Institute of National Policy chief executive Kuo Yu-jen (郭育仁) said.
The G7 leaders made their reference to Taiwan in the broader context of concern for the rule-based international order in the South China Sea, East China Sea and, by extension, the Indo-Pacific region, Kuo said.
The US’ consensus-building strategy is to bundle Taiwan with maritime disputes surrounding China, and it has proved successful in bringing together the G7, he said.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s efforts to warn the leaders not to criticize China in the joint communique had clearly ended in failure, he added.
“Every reference to China in the communique has been about bad things, including investigating the source of COVID-19, unfair trade practices, issues in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and seeking to unilaterally change the status quo,” Kuo said.
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