No.8 , October 3, 2019

The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations passed the TAIPEI Act. Senator Cory Gardner, chairman of the subcommittee on East Asia, stated that the United States should use all tools to support Taiwan's standing on the world stage.
(Photo from: United Daily News)

● Featured News: Newest Version Of TAIPEI Act Contains Significant Changes

● Featured Editorial: Looking At Our Two Diplomatic Losses From The "Taiwan Is Useless” Viewpoint
● Featured Opinion: America Speaks Out For Taiwan—Really For Taiwan’s Sake?
● This Week in Taiwan: Other Important Events This Week

Newest Version Of TAIPEI Act Contains Significant Changes

United Daily News, September 29, 2019

 

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the TAIPEI Act on September 25. The newest version contains substantial changes in content, including adding the sense of Congress that the United States and Taiwan should partake in bilateral trade negotiations, but language about executive action towards countries which sever diplomatic ties in Taiwan is not as strong as that in the original version. The new version also does not require the State Department to report to Congress concerning these matters.

 

Last week, after Solomon Islands and Kiribati severed ties with Taiwan, many members of Congress urged passage of the TAIPEI Act. The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations passed the TAIPEI Act, among other legislation, on September 25. The bill will require ratification by both the Senate and House of Representatives before being sent to the president for signature.

 

In the May 23 version of the bill introduced by Senator Cory Gardner, chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia, Committee on Foreign Relations, and others, the United States would be authorized to lower diplomatic presence or reduce foreign assistance to countries which sever ties with Taiwan. The old version also requires that State Department report to Congress regularly on how the United States assists Taiwan in maintaining its diplomatic relations and strengthening its relations with countries which do not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

 

But the September 26 version no longer contains language about the United States adjusting aid towards countries which harm Taiwan or the State Department reporting to Congress about strategies concerning Taiwan’s international recognition.

 

The September 26 version of the bill adds the sense of Congress that the United States should support Taiwan’s official and unofficial partnerships with countries in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.

 

And regarding countries whose actions harm Taiwan, the United States, consistent with American interests, can consider reducing economic, security, and diplomatic exchanges.

 

The bill states that if the United States were to increase or decrease exchanges with a country which strengthens or harms relations with Taiwan, the State Department should consult with appropriate congressional committees.   

 

But there is an additional item in the adjusted version: namely, the United States should conduct bilateral trade negotiations with Taiwan with a view to signing a free trade agreement (FTA) based upon common economic interests and which is conducive to American exports and could protect American laborers.

 

The September 26 version keeps the requirements that the president should encourage visits to Taiwan by high-level officials in accordance with the Taiwan Travel Act, and that the United States has a responsibility to support Taiwan’s participation in the international organizations.

 

From: https://udn.com/news/story/6809/4074905

The relationship between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the United States will become closer because of the TAIPEI Act.
(Photo from: United Daily News)

Looking At Our Two Diplomatic Losses From The "Taiwan Is Useless” Viewpoint

United Daily News Editorial, September 25, 2019

 

Taiwan lost two diplomatic allies in a row in five days, and President Tsai Ing-wen conducted neither policy nor personnel review. Instead, it was the U.S. State Department eager to explore options of response. President Donald Trump presided over the activities and speeches at the U.N. Headquarters and invited the director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York to attend. Premier Su Tseng-chang said that this is an important diplomatic breakthrough. It may be a breakthrough in Taiwan-U.S. relations. However, it is a cheeky overstatement to say it is an important diplomatic breakthrough.

 

Our people welcome any breakthrough in Taiwan-U.S. relations and are also pleased to see Taiwan’s presence at the United Nations. However, if we are complacent about the United States piggybacking Taiwan into the function in the U.N. to revenge China, it only reflects that  the Tsai administration’s foreign policy is embarrassingly getting narrower and narrower, and what is left in the diplomatic relations are but Taiwan-U.S. relations. In fact, Taiwan is being shut out by the ICAO of the U.N. Diplomacy embellished with superficial achievements but dented by solid setbacks is not to be claimed a political achievement. Taking the two countries that have broken diplomatic tie as an example, Solomon Islands was quite critical of U.S. involvement, and said bluntly that China had a key position in helping Solomon Islands attain the goals of the U.N.; and China was more helpful to counterbalance Australia. Kiribati just sent a letter to the U.N. secretary-general supporting Taiwan’s bid for participation in the U.N., but in a matter of two days it followed the diplomatic switch.

 

Regarding the diplomatic predicaments facing Taiwan, President Tsai shifted the responsibility to mainland China and condemned Beijing’s involvement in Taiwan’s elections. However, Taiwan’s successive diplomatic break-ups are not only due to the China factors, but also the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) rigid foreign policy and its excessive reliance on the United States.

 

The Tsai administration lost seven allies in about three years. These break-ups have several common characteristics: First, they chose Beijing for economic reasons; for example, Solomon Island Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said, “the Belt and Road Initiative will bring huge benefits, and Taiwan is useless to us." Secondly, the curbing by the United States, Australia etc. failed to save these allies, instead they thought Taiwan was involved in the political wrangling between China and the United States  and Australia in the South Pacific. It was against this background that Sogavare said, "China is better diplomatic partner in helping the country to counterbalance Australia.”

 

However, in the face of the declining influence of the United States and Australia in the South Pacific and Latin America, and the changing mentality of our diplomatic allies toward China’s rise, the Tsai government still regards the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy as a talisman for safeguarding our diplomatic alliance. It is out of touch with international reality. We still assume the outdated Agricultural Technical Mission and other economic aid policies as ever-successful diplomatic tools, and disregard the strong temptations of the economic dividends of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative for our allies, and also ignored the U.S.-Australia’s strong push to contain China, which has produced huge backlash, leading to the failure of our financial aid and the early warning policies.

 

First of all, the policy based on financial aid has become obsolete. In the past, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait vying for diplomatic relations is largely based on the level of financial aid; but mainland China has already broken the mold, with state-owned enterprises serving as pioneers to carry out infrastructure development and improve transportation facilities, followed by gradually introduced official economic assistance and gratuitous aid to strengthen its political influence in the country.

 

Given the contrast of economic strength between the two sides of the strait, although we have adjusted the overall thinking of financial aid to our diplomatic allies, we have not been able to break away from a diplomatic model dominated by financial aid. Solomon Islands was said to expel our ambassador on the grounds that Taiwan requested the support of members of parliament on the condition of one million dollars reward per person. If true, this is a serious interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Faced with the challenge of huge economic dividends of the Belt and Road Initiative, Taiwan must fundamentally review its foreign policies and actions.

 

Second is the failure of the early warning policy. Since the DPP took office in 2016, the two sides of the strait have lacked the channel of dialogues and base for mutual trust, and the Tsai government has worked actively to join the United States and Japan against China, and the cross-strait relations have evolved into a confrontational pattern. The mainland China is exerting maximum pressure on Taiwan by undermining our diplomatic alliances and compressing our international space. Cumbered with the imbalance of political and economic power between the two sides, the Tsai government has enlisted the United States, Japan, Australia etc. to extend support for our diplomatic struggle by equating Taiwan’s diplomacy with the American strategic interests in the overall context of the United States and Australia containing and contending against China.  

 

For example, after El Salvador broke up diplomatic ties with us last year, the United States recalled ambassadors to Dominican Republic, Salvador and Panama to help Taiwan maintain diplomatic relations in Central America. Recently, the Congress is also considering the so-called "TAIPEI Act" to shield Taiwan's diplomacy. Whether such a trend makes the Tsai administration gradually regard the United States as a guardian of Taiwan's diplomacy, thinking that as long as we have America to rely on, everything will be fine?  In such a case, Taiwan would gradually lose its alertness of political changes within its diplomatic allies.

 

In the face of the increasingly refined economic aid policy of mainland China, our government should change its dualistic foreign policy and deal with diplomacy with pluralistic thinking, and return to the warning comment of Fredrick Chien that policy towards mainland China is the superordinate policy; otherwise, if our diplomatic allies believe that "Taiwan is useless," our diplomacy would only fall victim as a sacrifice in the U.S.-China wrestling. In case of a U.S.-China compromise, Taiwan would really be “useless” and abandoned as sacrifice; and any more breakthroughs in the Taiwan-U.S. relations will be in vain.

 

From: https://udn.com/news/story/11321/4068946

America Speaks Out For Taiwan—Really For Taiwan’s Sake?

United Daily News, September 27, 2019

 

After Taiwan’s two diplomatic allies in the South Pacific successively defected to mainland China, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the “Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019” as a gesture to support Taiwan. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sandra Oudkirk also indicated her plans to visit Taiwan under the Taiwan Travel Act. The above news seems to give a shot of cardiac stimulant to the failing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration. However, is America’s speaking out for Taiwan really for Taiwan’s sake?

 

The original version of the TAIPEI Act asks the U.S. executive branch to adopt measures to strengthen Taiwan’s international allies by urging those countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The Act would authorize the Secretary of State to strengthen or reduce U.S. diplomatic relations with those countries which consider changing their relations with Taiwan by increasing or decreasing U.S. assistance.

 

Through the TAIPEI Act and the statements of relevant officials, the United States demands other countries reinforce their substantive relations with Taiwan to jointly face Beijing’s bullying actions that have resulted in serious threats to Taiwan’s democracy. The United States also criticizes that Beijing attempts to erode the sovereignties of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies by coercion and to induce those countries to act according to Beijing’s interests.

 

The TAIPEI Act would authorize the U.S. Secretary of State to use diplomatic relations and assistance as tools; aren’t these measures “attempts to erode the sovereignty of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and to induce them to act according to Washington’s interests”? Moreover, despite the long-term friendship with the Republic of China but in accordance with regional politics and American economic interests, the United States established diplomatic relationship with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as early as in 1978. Didn’t the United States set a “good example” for Taiwan’s remaining allies to follow?

 

The TAIPEI Act calls upon the U.S. government to speak out or vote to support Taiwan’s membership in those international organizations in which statehood is not a requirement or support Taiwan’s observer status in other international organizations. However, the realty is that international organizations have continued to suppress Taiwan despite Washington’s opposition.

 

In Taiwan’s election year, sudden words and actions by the United States to support Taiwan give a lifesaver to the DPP administration that continues to fail in diplomatic relations. But we have to be alert that America may use Taiwan as a pawn in the U.S.-China trade war and Hong Kong’s protests. After President Tsai Ing-wen took office, Beijing has continued to grab Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Central and South America and in the South Pacific. Those countries are in the backyard of the United States. The actions by Beijing have shown waning American influence. Therefore, are the measures taken by the United States to support Taiwan really for Taiwan’s sake?

From: https://udn.com/news/story/6656/4071684

September 23: U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien announced that Matthew Pottinger will assume the post of deputy advisor. Pottinger is regarded as friendly to Taiwan and hawkish towards China. He was formerly Reuters correspondent in Beijing and reported for The Wall Street Journal from Hong Kong. In 2017, he served in the White House and was a communication channel between the White House and Taiwan’s representative office in the United States. In March, Pottinger appeared with Deputy Foreign Minister Hsu Szu-chien in the Solomon Islands to help Taiwan sustain diplomatic ties.

September 24: Lily Hsu, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York, attended, upon invitation by the United States, a “Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom” summit at the United Nations (U.N.) headquarters. Hsu listened to President Donald Trump deliver remarks. This is the first time a Taiwan official entered the U.N. headquarters since Taiwan’s withdrawal from the U.N. in 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment as to which capacity Hsu was invited.

September 26: Apropos the cigarette smuggling scandal during President Tsai Ing-wen’s foreign visit, the prosecution has concluded the first phase of investigation. A first wave of 13 people will be fined. Lin Chia-ru, consultant to the presidential spokesperson, was fined the most at $45,000 NTD (about $1,451 USD) for carrying 36 bars of cigarettes. Legislator Huang Kuo-chang revealed a day earlier that Lin, who wore white gloves and displayed President Tsai’s dissertation to the public, bought 37 bars of cigarettes in flight and took out the cigarettes without being seized by customs. This refuted a statement by the Office of the President that none of its officials were implicated.

September 28: The Ministry of Transportation and Communications held a meeting to review southward extension plans of the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR). The “Zuoying plan” was approved out of four plans. The project will extend the THSR from Zuoying to Pingtung, covering a total distance of 17.5 kilometers and travel time of 10 minutes. The number of passengers is expected to increase by nearly 4,000 a day, and the project is estimated to cost $55.4 billion NTD (about $1.78 billion USD). The project is estimated to complete in 2029.

September 29: The elections in January 2020 are counting down to one hundred days. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held a national convention appealed to anti-China rhetoric and sense of national doom. In her speech, President Tsai Ing-wen emphasized that the opponents of 2020 are not only at home but also across the strait. According to Tsai, China hopes that Taiwan will elect a regime that will bow to Beijing and not dare to buy any fighter jets. “Succumbing to Beijing’s pressures and consensus will make the R.O.C. disappear and make Taiwan disappear,” Tsai warned. Clearly, “anti-China” has become a main pivot of the DPP’s 2020 campaign.

Taiwan Weekly is a newsletter released every week by Fair Winds Foundation, Taipei Forum, and Association of Foreign Relations that provides coverage and perspectives into the latest developments in Taiwan.

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