US arms sale to Taiwan seen as symbolic

[Randy W]

It's okay, guys! Really, it is!

 

US arms sale to Taiwan seen as symbolic

(Global Times) 08:46, December 16, 2015

The reported US government authorization to sell two frigates to Taiwan, a year after President Barack Obama signed an act to allow the sales, will be more symbolic than substantial, analysts said Tuesday.

. . .

The reported arms sales to Taiwan drew strong protests from Beijing.

. . .

The Obama administration will act cautiously as the US also needs help and cooperation from China, the world's second-largest economy, and will not want to sabotage the delicate relationship, said experts.

. . .

Moreover, selling arms to Taiwan before Obama's term ends saves the new US president future troubles with Beijing on this matter, Zhou Fangyin, a professor at the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies wrote in an article published in the Global Times.

. . .

Although the US has sold many arms to Taiwan under its policy to "maintain a sufficient self-defense capability" of the region according to the Taiwan Relations Act enacted in 1979, many of the weapons are outdated and could not substantially protect the region, said Huang Renwei, vice president of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

from the Global Times - but guess who won

 

US wary over Tsai stance

 

The US is concerned over the future of cross-Straits relations as Taiwan's elections draw near, fearing Taiwan's "presidential" race frontrunner Tsai Ing-wen's independent-leaning attitude may upset the Chinese mainland and affect US regional influence, experts said.

Tsai, a candidate from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has always refused to publicly acknowledge the 1992 Consensus which states there is only one China. She is the frontrunner in the upcoming elections that will take place on Saturday.

 

. . .

 

Cross-Straits relations have greatly improved in recent years with current leader Ma Ying-jeou overseeing a rapprochement with the mainland. This has led to trade deals and a tourist boom, and at a meeting in Singapore in November 2015, Ma shook hands with President Xi Jinping, which has opened up a whole new chapter in cross-Straits relations.

"But cross-Straits relations could take a turn for the worse if the DPP wins, as Tsai's political stance is unlikely to change," Chang said.

 

 

 

WSJ

 

Opposition candidate Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide victory in Taiwan's presidential election, making her the democracy's first female president and setting back Beijing's ambitions to reunify the island with the mainland.
Ms. Tsai's commanding victory brings to power her Democratic Progressive Party, which espouses Taiwan's formal independence from China. Beijing claims the island as its territory.
Eric Chu, the candidate from the ruling Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, conceded defeat and congratulated Ms. Tsai on her victory.

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Does Taiwan still matter to mainland China?

Taiwanese played a crucial role in helping the mainland transform itself in the post-reform era, but with over 70,000 Taiwanese companies now operating on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, just how important is the ‘renegade island’ to Beijing?

 

With China’s rapid rise to become the world’s second-largest economy, Taiwan’s importance to China’s development has significantly decreased.

For example, in 1990, Taiwan’s GDP stood at US$170 billion, equivalent to 43.8 per cent of China’s GDP of US$387.8 billion. The island’s GDP jumped to a whopping US$528.3 billion by 2014, at which point it only represented 5 per cent of China’s US$10 trillion, such was the difference in their respective growth rates.

. . .

Ciorciari pointed out the fact that the lower visibility of the Taiwan issue in Chinese foreign policy and Sino-US relations in recent years owes much to warmer cross-strait ties during the eight-year tenure of Beijing-friendly Ma Ying-jeou.

“If ties deteriorate, we may again see the Taiwan issue rise in salience,” Ciorciari said.

Tsang, from the University of Nottingham in England, said that with nationalism on the rise and the Chinese Communist Party seeing its legitimacy as based on the promotion of a “unified view of China and the world: One China, One Truth, One World, One Dream”, the ruling Communist Party cannot afford to let Taiwan have a future separate from its own.

[Randy W]

 

from the Global Times - but guess who won

 

US wary over Tsai stance

 

The US is concerned over the future of cross-Straits relations as Taiwan's elections draw near, fearing Taiwan's "presidential" race frontrunner Tsai Ing-wen's independent-leaning attitude may upset the Chinese mainland and affect US regional influence, experts said.

 

Tsai, a candidate from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has always refused to publicly acknowledge the 1992 Consensus which states there is only one China. She is the frontrunner in the upcoming elections that will take place on Saturday.

 

. . .

 

Cross-Straits relations have greatly improved in recent years with current leader Ma Ying-jeou overseeing a rapprochement with the mainland. This has led to trade deals and a tourist boom, and at a meeting in Singapore in November 2015, Ma shook hands with President Xi Jinping, which has opened up a whole new chapter in cross-Straits relations.

 

"But cross-Straits relations could take a turn for the worse if the DPP wins, as Tsai's political stance is unlikely to change," Chang said.

 

 

 

WSJ

 

Opposition candidate Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide victory in Taiwan's presidential election, making her the democracy's first female president and setting back Beijing's ambitions to reunify the island with the mainland.

Ms. Tsai's commanding victory brings to power her Democratic Progressive Party, which espouses Taiwan's formal independence from China. Beijing claims the island as its territory.

Eric Chu, the candidate from the ruling Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, conceded defeat and congratulated Ms. Tsai on her victory.

 

 

 

 

One possible influence on the vote

 

http://shanghaiist.com/upload/2016/01/Tzuyu.jpg

 

Teen pop star Chou Tzu-yu’s apology for waving Taiwan flag swayed young voters for DPP

Controversial video helped DPP secure support, according to survey by cross-strait think thank

 

 

Some 1.34 million of the young voters who took part in Taiwan’s election were pushed to the polls or changed their vote after learning a local pop singer was forced to apologise for waving the island’s flag, a survey by a cross-strait think tank has found.

 

. . .

 

The singer, 16-year-old Chou Tzu-yu was forced to apologise for holding the Taiwanese flag during an appearance on South Korean TV in November. The incident raised issues about Taiwan’s identity and its relationship with the mainland, which considers the island a breakaway province. It was widely speculated her management company forced her to make the apology, which came on Friday, to avoid upsetting mainlanders, a key market.

Hung said the association’s online survey found many of the young voters were deeply angry over the incident.

 

[Randy W]

China's new president-elect met with "Facebook trolls. Live-fire military drills."

 

CNN -

Facebook trolling, military drills: China responds to Taiwan's new president

 

Taiwan's new President Tsai Ing-wen hasn't been sworn in yet but China's apparent response to her election couldn't be called subtle.

This week, her Facebook page was bombarded by tens of thousands of hostile messages in what Chinese state media termed "an online crusade" or "holy war," while state broadcaster CCTV released images of military exercises in the Taiwan Strait

 

Interestingly enough, her given name 英文 seems to be Yingwen in Mandarin Pinyin or literally "English"

Edited January 23, 2016 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Caixin

 

Peace with Taiwan Is in Everyone's Interest

Tsai Ing-wen's election victory does not mean reconciliation is impossible, only that the process of resolving differences continues

But the Kuomintang's stinging defeat has raised two profound questions. Was the vote a comment on the reconciliation efforts that the Kuomintang has championed? Do the results mean that most people in Taiwan are renouncing the principle of peaceful development?

Taking the outcome of the election at face value puts us at risk of misreading the situation. Cross-strait ties are indeed important in Taiwan, but they are not the only issue. The decline in support for the KMT is largely the result of the party's failure to tackle many local issues, including economic stagnation, deterioration of the investment climate and little increase in people's incomes. The party's image has been tarnished by its indecisiveness regarding major policies and by divisions in its ranks.

. . .

Beijing has done a good job formulating consistent cross-strait policies without losing its vision amid the comings and goings of one particular party or its leader in Taiwan. It will no doubt show the flexibility needed to help maintain stability by reaching out to the other side of the strait. However, mainland leaders need to show more willingness to heed the aspirations of the people of Taiwan, particularly the younger generation, whose growing political clout was demonstrated in this election.