The Wagner Group revolt highlighted the fragility of dictatorship and it might deepen Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) insecurity, National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
Wagner Group mercenaries seized the Russian army base in Rostov-on-Don and advanced toward Moscow with the aim of toppling Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.
“Dictatorship might not be as strong as we thought and its fragility still exists,” Koo said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) posted online yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Xinhua / Li Gang
Xi prioritizes the security of his authority over everything else, Koo said, adding that it remains to be seen how the anxiety caused by anti-espionage legislation and the languid economy turns out.
Koo said that China intends to seek unification with Taiwan by any means and considers it a “historic mission,” while 90 percent of Taiwanese wish to maintain the “status quo.”
The conflicting objectives are the fundamental source of the tensions across the Taiwan Strait, rather than the Democratic Progressive Party being in office, he said.
Even if the candidate of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or another party won the presidential election, they would face the same situation, he added.
The US takes the approach of coordinated deterrence on China, such as by issuing statements on international occasions to underline the importance of cross-strait peace and stability as it concerns the interests of the world, Koo said.
The US and its international allies are sending a clear and consistent message to China against unilaterally changing the “status quo” by force, he said.
The US is planning to form a Marine Littoral Regiment and has access to military bases in the Philippines to prevent China from easily entering and exiting the first island chain, he added.
In addition to Washington’s efforts, Taiwan has to strengthen its self-defense capabilities, Koo said.
China, should it invade, would be at risk of economic sanctions and the intervention of foreign military forces, he said.
If Xi is rational, he would understand that invading Taiwan by force would lead to consequences that he cannot afford, he added.
Cross-strait issues are not Chinese domestic issues, but a concern of the international community, Koo said.
The UN Charter stipulates that international disputes should be resolved peacefully and the G7 is “strongly opposing any unilateral attempts to change the peacefully established status of territories by force or coercion anywhere in the world,” he said.
Taiwan and China not being subordinate to each other has become a reality “acknowledged to a great extent by the international community,” he added.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS