Tsai Ing-wen’s US Card Sours

 Tsai Ing-wen’s US Card Sours

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 1, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

US President Trump and Mainland President Xi Jinping met for the 5th "Trump-Xi Summit" on June 29, once again deciding to resume trade negotiations. Major countries in the world, including neighboring countries such as Japan and ASEAN all welcome this positive development, hoping that the tense US-China relations would return to the right track; possibly only the DPP government was disappointed. Because Taiwan has embarked on a unilateral reliance on the US, which is a road of no return, it has cut itself off from the mainstream international community.

Under the international situation filled with uncertainties, one of the characteristics of the G20 Summit this time is precisely that the various countries all hope that relations will return the right track; Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the host country Japan exerted all efforts to return Sino-Japanese relations back to the right track, while China not only wants to resume Sino-American trade negotiations, but also wants to guide the Taiwan question back to the right track. As the Tsai Ing-wen government hoists ideology supreme in order to maintain political power, it can only cling to a "pro-US and anti-China" policy; however, in the two-superpower diplomacy, Tsai Ing-wen's "US card" was entirely fragile and couldn’t sustain even one blow.

The Trump-Xi Summit has once again verified that the key to the development of Sino-American relations is still in the hands of the two strongman leaders Trump and Xi; even though Sino-American relations have experienced many ups and downs, the two have never exchanged bards toward each other, maintaining benign relations, so much so that once Xi Jinping employs a gambit, he demonstrates his influence on Trump.

In order to meet with Xi Jinping, Trump delayed the important arms sales of the M1A1 battle tank and other items to Taiwan, obviously showing that Taiwan was a chip for the US. Following the resumption of US-China trade negotiations, the value of this chip is gradually diminishing. Cutting itself off from the international tide, the Tsai Ing-wen government has no way of making a return; the only way to resolve this crisis is in the presidential election next January.

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