Prof. ST Hsieh
Director, US-China Energy Industry Forum
626-376-7460
March 30, 2023
The world is under a US-Russia proxy war in Ukraine with no end in sight, certainly there is no need for another proxy war in Taiwan between the US and PRC.
The puzzle is that both PRC and Taiwan have openly renounced war and called for peace. But the US has enhanced “security cooperation” by approving massive arm sales to Taiwan.
Mr. Ma’s statement that maintaining the peaceful and stable development of relations (with PRC) is the “general mainstream view of Taiwanese society” may be debatable in Taiwan as what constitutes “general mainstream view.” But for sure, only a small minority in Taiwan favors starting any war. Further, Ma should send this same message of peace to the US.
Ms. Tsia’s statement that the US and Taiwan are ‘closer than ever,’ does not address the core issue of war or peace for Taiwan. On the one hand, Ms. Tsai’s stopover in the US is a major irritant of US-China relation. Thus, her stopover may mean “close than ever” to a war that no one wants. On the other hand, the US acted, based on a US domestic law called Taiwan Relation Act (TRA)”to provide the island with the means to defend itself and it facilitates unofficial stopover visits.”
For most of the people in Taiwan, around 23millions, enjoying a peaceful day is more important than watching their politicians travel around the world. For example, Taiwan now has about 220 political parties. The two major parties each with about 350,000 registered members which is about 1.5%!
Taiwan, China must do ‘everything possible’ to avoid war- former president MaCouncil Song Tao
Thu, March 30, 2023 at 4:51 AM PDT
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan and China must do everything possible to avoid war and it is the responsibility of both sides’ leaders to ensure peace, former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou told a senior Chinese official on Thursday.
Ma arrived in China on Monday, the first time a former or sitting Taiwanese president has visited the country since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists.
Meeting Song Tao, head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Ma said maintaining the peaceful and stable development of relations is the “general mainstream view of Taiwanese society”.
It is the common responsibility of the “principals” on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to strive for all opportunities that are conducive to enhancing peace, Ma said, according to a transcript of his comments provided by Ma’s office in Taipei.
“The two sides must maintain exchanges, cooperate together, and do everything possible to avoid war and conflict.”
China’s official Xinhua news agency cited Song as telling Ma that people in China and Taiwan should both “resolutely oppose Taiwan independence separatist activities and interference from external forces, and jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait”.
Ma is visiting China at a time of heightened tension between Taipei and Beijing, as China ramps up military and diplomatic pressure to try and force the democratically governed island to accept Chinese sovereignty.
US and Taiwan are ‘closer than ever,’ President Tsai says in New York
Hussein Waaile, Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard
Wed, March 29, 2023 at 7:57 PM PDT
NEW YORK/TAIPEI (Reuters) -The U.S. and Taiwan are closer than ever, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen told supporters during a stopover in New York that so far, according to Taipei and Washington, has not triggered unusual military actions by China.
The visit comes at a time when U.S. relations with China are at what some analysts see as their worst level since Washington normalized ties with Beijing in 1979 and switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei.
On what is her first U.S. stopover since 2019, Tsai touted Taiwan’s economic, security and diplomatic achievements in a closed-door speech on Wednesday night to overseas Taiwanese in New York, her office said in a statement on Thursday, calling the island a “beacon of democracy in Asia.”
“In particular, the relationship between Taiwan and the United States is closer than ever,” she said, noting “significant progress” in economic and security cooperation.
Though Taiwan faced “enormous challenges,” it would not be isolated, Tsai said. She also thanked the U.S. government for implementing security agreements with Taiwan, including nine announced arms sales by President Joe Biden’s administration.
NO CHINESE MILITARY ACTION
Taiwan’s defence ministry, in its daily update on China’s military activities, said that from Wednesday to Thursday morning it had not spotted any Chinese aircraft entering Taiwan’s air defence zone or crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which serves as an unofficial barrier.
The White House, which urged China on Wednesday not to use Tsai’s “normal” stopover in the U.S. as a pretext to increase aggressive activity against Taiwan, also said it had seen “no tangible reaction” yet from China.
“I think we’ve all seen them react in a rhetorical way, but we’ve seen no indication that there’s been any other type of reaction,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
MCCARTHY MEETING
A meeting with McCarthy would be the first between a Taiwanese leader and a U.S. House Speaker on U.S. soil, although it is seen as a potentially less provocative alternative to McCarthy visiting Taiwan, something he has said he hopes to do.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said in Beijing on Wednesday that if Tsai met with McCarthy, China would “definitely take measures to resolutely fight back” and Xu Xueyuan, charge d’affaires at China’s Washington embassy, said such a meeting “could lead to another serious confrontation in the China-U.S. relationship.”
Washington, like most countries, maintains only unofficial ties with Taipei, but U.S. law requires the government to provide the island with the means to defend itself and it facilitates unofficial stopover visits.