Boeing, Huawei, Sino-US Chess Game and Taiwan

 Boeing, Huawei, Sino-US Chess Game and Taiwan

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 22, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Less than 24 hours after a Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger aircraft of Ethiopian Airlines crashed, leaving 157 aboard dead, the Mainland authorities spearheaded the grounding of that type of aircraft. The US media deliberately directed China’s ban toward the factor of the China-US trade war, but in the ensuing days, various countries successively announced grounding orders one after another; finally the United States was also compelled to issue a no-fly order. Whether in terms of the international image of China and the United States or the angle of China’s game theory, this matter has momentous significance; Taiwan ought to learn how to behave in big power chess games.

Boeing is the most important civil/military industrial enterprise in the United States, the world's second largest defense contractor; Boeing's interests are the interests of the United States, with the profits from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 occupying more than 30% of the source of Boeing’s profits, and it is also the biggest source of orders. If it is confirmed that this type of aircraft has problems, Boeing will not only face a huge loss of orders, but also has to face exorbitant indemnity litigations. Based on the principle "American interests first," the US government cannot but strongly support Boeing, and at the same time wants its allies to join in the support.

A similar situation was also seen in the Huawei case. The United States based on security grounds banned Huawei's telecommunications equipment, at the same time exerting pressure on various countries to follow suit. Consequently, although some countries did follow suit, Germany and the United Kingdom, principal US allies, have expressed their stance on "autonomous security scrutiny," not following the US containment of Huawei.

As far as Taiwan is concerned, the lesson that Taiwan should have learned is that it is true the US is our most important security partner, but in all matters we need professional considerations and understand Taiwan’s own true interests, and not following suit all the way. In the Boeing incident, fortunately, our domestic airline operators do not have this specific model; thus the Tsai government was exempted from a test. However, in the Huawei incident, the Tsai government obviously made a misjudgment and took the wrong option, in that it had decided too early to ban Huawei, and not only the telecommunications equipment, it also included banning the use of Huawei cell phones by government agencies.

Frankly speaking, this decision was extremely unprofessional and not conducive to information security, only indicating a political stance toward the US, having forgotten that Huawei in fact had close ties with the domestic electronic supply chain, procuring nearly US$20 billion worth of supplies from Taiwan per year. In the 5G market in the future, both parties will have greater business opportunities of cooperation. All the way following the United States in containing Huawei, Taiwan loses more than it gains. The Tsai government, from the Boeing case this time and the earlier Huawei case, ought to have witnessed and learned, in the Sino-American chess game, how Taiwan should behave itself!

Attachment : none