US President Joe Biden’s engagements with regional leaders during his trip to Asia could yield positive political overtones for Taiwan, observers in the US said on Thursday.
There could be serious conversations on what Japan and the US might do to “deter aggression against Taiwan,” said Shelia Smith, a senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has framed the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a challenge to global order that affects the Indo-Pacific region, would certainly want to continue to coordinate with the US on how to respond to a potential Taiwan crisis, Smith told a forum to preview Biden’s trip, which began in South Korea on Friday.
Photo: AFP
References to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and concerns over China’s behavior can be expected in a joint statement issued by Biden and Kishida, Smith said.
Biden met with South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl, with the focus of their talks expected to be on North Korea.
Biden is to travel to Tokyo to meet Kishida and attend a summit on Tuesday of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) leaders, an alliance of the US, Japan, India and Australia.
The emphasis is likely to be on China at the Quad meeting, observers said.
Manjari Chatterjee Miller, a senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the forum that she expects the top agenda item at the Quad summit to be the specter of China as a strategic threat to open societies and democracies.
“It would also be a demonstration that there would be the similar kind of resolve in Asia on Taiwan as there has been in Europe on Ukraine,” Miller said. “I think that’s something that the Biden administration would hope to solidify with this meeting.”
However, Miller said she does not expect a Quad statement that explicitly mentions China, partly because India would not be part of the Quad if it were an explicitly anti-China alliance.
Nonetheless, the way Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, characterized the trip — that it is meant for open societies and democracies to get together — has made it clear there would be regional support for Taiwan were China to invade, she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS