Behind the Taiwan issue

[Randy W]

Taiwan may pay lip service at times just to avoid a fist fight, but they still maintain they have sovereignty over China. That's what they mean by "one China."

 

But there is a political battle within Taiwan itself. One Chinese general says the war will occur in 2020 when China takes Taiwan with "one stroke."

 

Interesting little vignette about the KMT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/world/asia/taiwan-china-kmt-kuomintang.html

 

But even from that article, Taiwan is heading away from that status quo. You can bet that they keep a close eye on what happens in Hong Kong.

 

"For the first time, it (KMT) is a minority party in the island’s legislature."

 

“The ’92 Consensus fell apart,” he said. “You can’t just put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

[Randy W]

Taiwan may pay lip service at times just to avoid a fist fight, but they still maintain they have sovereignty over China. That's what they mean by "one China."

 

But there is a political battle within Taiwan itself. One Chinese general says the war will occur in 2020 when China takes Taiwan with "one stroke."

 

Interesting little vignette about the KMT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/world/asia/taiwan-china-kmt-kuomintang.html

 

But even from that article, Taiwan is heading away from that status quo. You can bet that they keep a close eye on what happens in Hong Kong.

 

"For the first time, it (KMT) is a minority party in the island’s legislature."

 

“The ’92 Consensus fell apart,” he said. “You can’t just put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

[Allon]

The KMT had their funds seized in some investigations that go way back to when they themselves seized some funds in coming to Taiwan. So they lack money to function.

 

What is causing the KMT to lose their grip also is the commerce end. The other parties in Taiwan are working on closer economic ties with China. But China likes working with the KMT better, strangely. I would not rule out the KMT. The current PM is stronger in confronting China now than the KMT.

 

"Beijing aims to demonstrate to the Taiwan electorate that the K.M.T. is the party best-suited in managing cross-strait relations, while at the same time maintaining informal channels of communication with the D.P.P. and third parties in order to remain abreast of their views and strategic thinking,” Ms. Drun wrote.

 

 

I just think China is waiting for the right time to strike. It would be a stupid move of course. Taiwan is still full of relatives on the mainland.

[Randy W]

The KMT had their funds seized in some investigations that go way back to when they themselves seized some funds in coming to Taiwan. So they lack money to function.

 

What is causing the KMT to lose their grip also is the commerce end. The other parties in Taiwan are working on closer economic ties with China. But China likes working with the KMT better, strangely. I would not rule out the KMT. The current PM is stronger in confronting China now than the KMT.

 

"Beijing aims to demonstrate to the Taiwan electorate that the K.M.T. is the party best-suited in managing cross-strait relations, while at the same time maintaining informal channels of communication with the D.P.P. and third parties in order to remain abreast of their views and strategic thinking,” Ms. Drun wrote.

 

 

I just think China is waiting for the right time to strike. It would be a stupid move of course. Taiwan is still full of relatives on the mainland.

 

 

. . . and I can't help but think that the PLA has their fill of "one-child" children whose parents wouldn't exactly be eager to see them going into battle.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Allon]

Totally agree. I have watched, as you have I am sure, the young guys in their combat BDU's, trying out martial arts and using bats on each other in the parks when we walked. They have no idea what it is like to face another man who wants to kill you.

 

I really wonder what the little Emperor's would do.

[amberjack1234]

I think that one well trained young American man would equal 5 Chinese little emperors because of his courage and initiative to stay alive. The wife agrees with me too. Each one would not have to get to injured for him to run away. I had an incident the last time I went to China where 6 Chinese men were obviously waiting for the wife and I as we approaching the wife's parents apartment. We had been the subject of the gated community the whole time we were there. They had the walkway blocked and were chattering away. The wife asks me what were we going to do and I said keep on walking just like they didn't exist. I had two bottles of Biju and took them by the necks and let the bags slip off of them and when we got there they parted like the red sea and let us pass. You could have heard a pin drop.

 

That was about 13 years ago. Now, I would probably take another egress.

Edited March 14, 2019 by amberjack1234 (see edit history)

[Randy W]

There's only ONE China, and it's going to get its feelings hurt if she goes to Hawaii

 

from the SCMP

 

China calls on US to keep Taiwan president from stopping in Hawaii

• Tsai Ing-wen begins trip to Pacific diplomatic allies Palau, Nauru and Marshall Islands
• Beijing reiterates its opposition to US transit accommodation that might ‘send any wrong signals’

 

“We call for the US to scrupulously abide by the ‘one China’ principle … not to let Tsai Ing-wen cross their border, not to send any wrong signals to the Taiwan independence forces, and to protect Sino-US relations with practical actions.”

Tsai departed Taiwan on Thursday to tour Palau, Nauru and the Marshall Islands, a trip that is scheduled to include a stopover in Hawaii next Wednesday.

 

 

[Randy W]

from Stars & Stripes

 

US warships sail through Taiwan Strait for third month in a row

 

China protests U.S. warships sailing through the approximately 100-mile-wide strait without first seeking its permission; however, the U.S. insists the strait is an international waterway.

This week’s passage was the fifth time in six months that U.S. warships have made the journey. The USS Stethem and cargo ship USNS Cesar Chavez passed through last month. The USS McCampbell and fleet replenishment oiler USNS Walter S. Diehl sailed there in January. The USS Stockdale and replenishment oiler USNS Pecos passed through in November, and the USS Curtis Wilbur and USS Antietam sailed the strait in October.

Before October, there had been only one Taiwan Strait transit reported in more than a year.

“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Keiley said. “The U.S. will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”

 

 

[Randy W]

I just checked my own atlases - the Rand McNally Universal World Atlas shows Taiwan in a color VERY similar to that of China, and my National Geographic Atlas of the World shows that Taiwan is "a province of China, administered by China Nationalists since 1949". WHEW!

 

Pulp friction: Chinese city shreds 29,000 maps showing Taiwan as a country

• Customs seizure prompts promise of closer monitoring of maps
• Resources ministry says such prints are ‘serious threat to national security’

 

More than 800 boxes containing 28,908 maps destined for export were shredded at a government-designated secret site in Qingdao, Shandong province, late last week. The move was ordered by the city’s natural resources and planning bureau after the maps were discovered by customs officials, news website Dazhongwang Qingdao reported on Thursday.

The bureau said the haul was the biggest recent official seizure of “problematic” maps and it promised to keep a closer eye on map production, as well as the import and export of those products.

 

 

[Allon]

Shredding maps? Petty, petty. And the Chinese people see through that.

 

I don't know why China won't let it be.

[Randy W]

[Randy W]

from the Global Times on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/globaltimesnews/videos/1144150902412871/

Global Times

16 hrs ·

Quote

【#HuSays】How ridiculous that the US accuses the PLA fighter jets of breaking the status quo in the #Taiwan Strait. The US’ best option to avoid repeated embarrassment at the hands of the mainland is to stop escalating its interference in the Taiwan Strait: Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin

 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Allon]

They don't get, or refuse to get, that the Taiwan Straits are international waters. If we stop these missions, we tacitly admit that the straits are part of China. Therefore, China is free to marshal (to put it lightly) its troops on the island anytime.

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

Beijing ‘tones down’ response after US warships sail through Taiwan Strait

• Foreign ministry spokesman says Beijing ‘expressed concern’ to Washington over the transit – a move that usually provokes a stronger reaction
• Military experts say the destroyers had turned on their automatic identification systems in an apparently ‘friendly’ gesture

 

 

 

The two warships, the destroyers USS Stethem and USS William P. Lawrence, sailed through the strait on Sunday and Monday. According to a statement by Taiwan’s defence ministry, it was the seventh such voyage reported since the US Navy carried out a similar transit in July last year.

Asked about the warships, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing had “expressed concern” to Washington.

Geng reiterated that the US should handle the Taiwan issue “prudently” to avoid a negative impact on its relations with Beijing. The spokesman also repeated that “the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive issue in Sino-US relations”.

His response was low-key compared with previous foreign ministry reactions to vessels sailing through the strategic waterway.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP - that's "Coordination Council for North American Affairs" becomes "Taiwan Council for US Affairs"

 

Taiwan changes name of de facto embassy in United States to ‘reflect stronger ties’

• Coordination Council for North American Affairs becomes Taiwan Council for US Affairs, island’s foreign ministry says
• Move signifies ‘firm and close relationship between Taiwan and the US’, President Tsai Ing-wen says

 

Once the necessary formalities have been completed, the agency formerly known as the Coordination Council for North American Affairs will be called the Taiwan Council for US Affairs, the island’s foreign ministry said.

. . .

Observers said the name change was significant as it appeared to drop the pretence that the council was non-diplomatic or political in nature.

 

. . .

 

Beijing, which considers Taiwan a wayward province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, has demanded that Washington observe the one-China policy by not officially recognising Taiwan or allowing it to use either “Republic of China” – the island’s official name – or “Taiwan” in the title of its representative offices in the US.

Washington also enacted the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 to prescribes relations with the island and includes a commitment to supply it with arms to protect itself.

“After continuous efforts and coordination by the two sides, and in 2019, the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, our office handling relations with the US is finally able to change its name,” Tsai said.