Does Tsai Ing-wen Still Not Have Any Feelings about the Next Trump-Xi Meeting?

 Does Tsai Ing-wen Still Not Have Any Feelings about the Next Trump-Xi Meeting?

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 27, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

The rise of Mainland China has led to a transformation of the global power structure, morphing the relationship between the two big superpowers, the US and China, from a "strategic partnership" to "strategic competition." However, Sino-American relations are extremely intertwined; both sides, under major divergences of strategy and value systems, have eventually reached a first phase trade agreement.

Viewed from the latest dynamics in US-China relations, the situation for Taiwan may possibly be even more detrimental. Obviously Trump insists very much on jointly signing an agreement with Xi Jinping; if everything is ascertained, this will be the second meeting following the "Trump-Xi summit" in Osaka at the end of last June. Trump, who seeks re-election, of course hopes to bolster his prospects; on the other hand, Xi Jinping will also necessarily come prepared.

During the last Trump-Xi telephone conversation, the main theme was a trade agreement; however, Xi Jinping, nevertheless, deliberately stressed that certain approaches of the US involving the questions of Taiwan and Hong Kong were interfering in China's domestic affairs, harming China's interests, unfavorable to bilateral mutual trust and cooperation. Xi hoped that the US would fully implement "The important consensuses reached through multiple meetings and telephone conversations, and pay a high degree of attention and attach importance to China's concerns, preventing interference in bilateral relations and important agendas between the two countries." This passage of conversation, nearly equivalent to a warning, will inevitably be the premise of the next Trump-Xi summit, bringing some impact on the future development of trilateral US-China-Taiwan relations. Under the mammoth interests of US-China economic/trade and investments, for Trump, who has always been inclined to "diplomacy by deals," the possibility of using Taiwan as a bargaining chip could be greater and greater.

The DPP government has bragged that the Taiwan-US relationship is the best in four decades; under the policy of "pro-US and countering China", it has been willing to be a chess piece for the US. However, as the US and China have reached a trade agreement, setting anew bilateral relationships, the expected delinking of US-China relations did not happen, while Taiwan could conversely first face a national security crisis because of the backpedaling of cross-Strait relations. For the foreseeable future, Mainland China’s markets will continue to be the main goal sought after by the US, Japan, South Korea and others, leaving only Taiwan outside the arena, shouting loudly "countering China to safeguard Taiwan".

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