When the Two Giants, the US and China, Cross Swords, How Should Taiwan Deal with the New Picture?

 When the Two Giants, the US and China, Cross Swords, How Should Taiwan Deal with the New Picture?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 2, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Han Kuo-yu, Terry Guo, Eric Chu, all hopefuls in the KMT presidential primary, attended a forum to revitalize Taiwan's competitiveness, and respectively expressed their views on the development of AI, operating government efficiency, and leadership style. Besides this, another topic that must be included in the discussion is the general situation in international economics and trade, especially the US-China trade war, an entangled battle lasting from last year to the present, seriously impacted Taiwan's holistic exports and investment trends; the hopefuls should present concrete strategies and direction in coping with the situation, utilizing the electoral process to galvanize a consensus for Taiwan.

The US-China trade talks have made slow progress; the US side has announced that they will be completed next week. No matter what the contents are in the concrete agreements, the trends will be a picture of "battling of two giants." To this, Terry Guo has a vivid description: "when the gods fight, mortals suffer." He believes that from the perspective of wisdom and reason, Taiwan should, "Just watch the show, why be part of it?" However, it would be difficult for “the mortals” who watch the show and are not part of it to avoid suffering, the how should Taiwan behave and cope?

US-China economic/trade relations are close, while Taiwan’s trade with the US or economic/trade ties with the Mainland are no exception. If the United States and China stage a big show of "fight between the gods," the seat of Taiwan "the mortal" is too close to ringside, being difficult to avoid unintended mishaps. In the battle between two giants, it’s commonplace for the fight to continue from the stage to the floor; in the truly ringside seats perhaps are the European Union and Japan; “when the sky falls, more people will help hold it up.” But in this case, does it apply?

Under the premise of "not becoming part of the show" and "not choosing sides" does Taiwan have a more proactive approach in coping with the situation? Every contender for the highest office of the land ought to present to the electorate some analyses and countermeasures so as to make the presidential race a more meaningful debate.

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