Tsai Ing-wen’s Concrete Allegiance Pledge: Should Taiwan Support the US in Using Taiwan to Counter China?

 Tsai Ing-wen’s Concrete Allegiance Pledge: Should Taiwan Support the US in Using Taiwan to Counter China?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

February 12, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

The dust of the US-China trade war has not yet settled, and now a story has been circulating that the Trump-Xi Summit of February Rivers has been put off. Trump earlier initiated the process of withdrawing from the US-Russia Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF); the US will freely produce and deploy intermediate-range missiles. This has been interpreted as the US intends to change the military status quo in the Asia-Pacific region with a sword pointing at Beijing. At a time when the US-China confrontation is escalating, Washington, however, has upped the ante in releasing goodwill to the Tsai government, including Taiwan in the anti-China ranks. The DPP, however, in consideration of the battle for preserving its regime, has been actively coordinating, hooking Taiwan’s security and peril with the US-China confrontation. Is this truly a wise move?

Since Trump came to office, he imposed sanctions of tariff on China, and has been with all efforts containing ZTE, Huawei and other high-tech enterprises involved in military-industrial high-end technology in order to suppress the airs of its rise and economic growth. The US-China new cold war has also extended to an arms race. Trump has announced the US withdrawal from the INF, and the United States may deploy guided missiles or anti-guided missile forces in the peripheral areas of East Asia, even opening arms control talks to constrain China.

The United States and China have turned foes from friends; the US, however, based on strategic requirements, has expressed all the more friendship to Taiwan. Last year, in quick succession, the US passed such bills friendly to Taiwan as the "Taiwan Travel Act," the "Defense Appropriations Authorization Act" and the "Asia Reassurance Initiative Act" to show its friendliness to Taiwan, making the Tsai government beam with joy. The problem is that the US policy friendly to Taiwan is limited to the "counter-China" scope; with respect to other crucial areas, such as the US-Taiwan trade talks, the Tsai government, nevertheless, has not secured an iota of feedback in exchange. The ridiculous thing is that our Foreign Minister has not been actively seeking substantive benefits from the US, while all day long following Trump in blasting China on Twitter.

If Taiwan follows the US very closely, positioning itself on the opposite side against Beijing, it will inevitably harm Taiwan’s economic/trade interests. Should US-China hostilities worsen in the future, or if the US and China reconciled because of a change of US president, Taiwan would be mired in a predicament of no path forward nor retreat.

If Tsai Ing-wen intended to join the ranks of pledging allegiance to the US in countering China, and at the same time, to freeze cross-Strait relations, then that would be using Taiwan’s economy, the peace dividends in the Taiwan Strait, and the feelings of the people on both sides of the Strait as collateral to deliver a pledge, vowing full good faith and allegiance in exchange for a back-up of its regime. However, the people have already seen enough tactics of political struggles in the name of preserving sovereignty; will the public allow a politician willing to be a puppet of a superpower to lead our country?

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