Behind the Taiwan issue

[Randy W]

military preparedness - from the SCMP

 

Taiwan lands warplanes on highway as part of military exercise

• President Tsai Ing-wen says Taipei should ‘maintain a high degree of vigilance’
• Exercise simulates response to attack from mainland on military bases

 

 

 

President Tsai Ing-wen watched the exercise in the southern county of Changhua, not far from one of Taiwan’s main airbases at Taichung.

“Our national security has faced multiple challenges,” Tsai said. “Whether it is the Chinese Communist Party’s [People’s Liberation Army] long-distance training or its fighter jets circling Taiwan, it has posed a certain degree of threat to regional peace and stability.

“We should maintain a high degree of vigilance,” she said.

 

 

[Randy W]

. . . and jobs. From the SCMP

 

Taipei resists Beijing’s attempt to win over Taiwan – one job at a time

• Taipei has fined more than 30 people from the island for taking up what it says are government positions in mainland China
• Those filling the positions say there is nothing unusual about the posts and there are few other options at home

 

 

So far, 33 people have been fined NT$100,000 (US$3,225) each for working as assistants at various communities in the mainland coastal city of Xiamen across the Taiwan Strait from the island, according to Ministry of the Interior.

Among those fined were people who accepted offers of at least NT$46,000 per month – or double the starting salary for many Taiwanese graduates – and various other benefits to work with residential management committees in communities in Haicang district.

 

. . .

 

Applicants did not need any special professional qualifications to apply but they did have to support the “one China” principle, peaceful development of cross-strait relations and the mainland’s “grand mission of Chinese renaissance”.

 

. . .

 

But Li Pei-chen, the first person from Taiwan to work in Haicang and one of those fined, said she was paid by a foundation instead of a management committee.

“There is a big misunderstanding from the Taiwanese authorities,” Taiwan’s Central News Agency quoted her as saying in Xiamen. “What we are doing in helping develop and restructure a community is exactly the same as that in Taiwan.”

But the Mainland Affairs Council said the Cross-Strait Urban and Rural Development Foundation Li referred to was established on June 15 to skirt the ban from Taiwan.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

I don't see why the U.S, wouldn't simply tell China that it's an internal Chinese matter, and to please settle it amongst themselves.

 

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen heads to US, warning of threat from ‘overseas forces’

• Visit to the island’s Caribbean allies will include stops in the United States for four nights in total
• She vows to work with countries with similar ideas ‘to ensure stability of the democratic system’

 

 

Beijing, which claims the self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its own and views the island as a wayward province, has called on the US not to allow Tsai to transit there on her overseas tour.

Tsai’s time in the US will be unusually long, as normally she spends just a night at a time on transit stops.

She is spending four nights there in total, two nights on her way to visit four Caribbean allies and two nights on the way back. Tsai will go to New York on her way there, and then is expected to stop in Denver on the way back.

 

 

[amberjack1234]

I'm glad to see her have the intestinal fortitude to come to the US but it will present another wedge between Beijing and the US obviously.

[Allon]

Well, it's an old argument but bears repeating. Just curious so I looked it up.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taiwan

 

Chronological Prehistory to 1624 Dutch Formosa 1624–1662 Spanish Formosa 1626–1642 Kingdom of Tungning 1662–1683 Qing rule 1683–1895 Republic of Formosa 1895 Japanese rule 1895–1945 Republic of China rule 1945–present

 

China actually occupied Taiwan for 212 years (1683-1895) in the most recent touch of "civilization" beginning in 1645. Before that Austronesian indigenous people lived there, and still do (only about 2% of the population of Taiwan now). They occupied Taiwan for 5,500 years.

 

For China to say Taiwan belongs to China is to say that Massachusetts belongs to the British. Or Cuba belongs to the US.

[amberjack1234]

Very well said.

[Randy W]

I believe it's acceptable to call them a "foreign entity", rather than a country. This allows them to include cross border traffic between Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China in the foreign tourism figures.

[Randy W]

It's good to see Taiwan maybe growing a pair, however slightly significantly - from the SCMP

 

Taiwan won’t give in to Beijing as it seeks UN membership, island’s President Tsai Ing-wen says

• Just days after US agrees US$2.2 billion arms deal, leader of self-ruled island hosts unprecedented reception for diplomatic allies at de facto embassy in New York
• Taipei ‘will never succumb to any threats, now or in the future’, she says

 

 

Before Thursday, Taiwan’s leaders had been prohibited from making public appearances during transit stops in the US.

Photo: Reuters

 

The event, at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, was attended by 17 officials, most of them envoys from nations with which Taiwan still has diplomatic ties, including Paraguay, Belize, Nauru, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

It was also the first of its kind to be open to the media, as Taiwan’s leaders have been prohibited from making public appearances during transit stops in the US since Washington switched its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing from Taipei in 1979.

“Taiwan will never succumb to any threats [from Beijing], now or in the future,” the presidential office quoted Tsai as saying. “Any obstacles will only strengthen Taiwan’s resolution to join the international community.”

 

 

[Randy W]

from the Shanghaiist

 

Chinese citizens will no longer be able to visit Taiwan as individual tourists

 

Is this China's way of trying to shake up the 2020 Taiwan presidential election?

 

 

China has announced that it will stop issuing individual tourist visas to Taiwan starting in August in its latest apparent move to increase pressure on Tsai Ing-wen’s government.

Since 2011, residents of 47 mainland cities have been able to apply for individual travel permits to visit Taiwan. Those permits generally last for six months.

What’s this really all about?

However, on Wednesday, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism declared that the program would be suspended starting on August 1, meaning that the only way mainlanders can now visit Taiwan as tourists is to go on a group tour.

In its brief statement, the ministry cited the current state of cross-strait ties as the reason for the change. The program was put into place when the China-friendly Kuomintang was running the show in Taiwan.

 

[Allon]

Cannot help but like Taiwan getting feisty. And it is about time. I think China knows it will get a bloody nose if it tries to occupy Taiwan. And they will lose face as a result. We can't have that now, can we?

[Randy W]

The Global Times explains the re-alignment of diplomatic ties, and asks for U.S, intervention.

 

Taiwan is to blame for Kiribati’s decision

Kiribati established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1980, but the Taiwan authority bought over its "diplomatic ties" in 2003. At that time, Taiwan's GDP was about one-fifth of the mainland's, and Taiwan could adopt "money diplomacy." But after more than 10 years, Taiwan's GDP is less than one-twentieth of the mainland's. Such "money diplomacy" has collapsed in Taiwan.

The Taiwan authority declared that the mainland used money to buy over Pacific nations. But these nations required no financial assistance when they switched to the mainland. Because of short-term economic interests, these nations used to maintain "diplomatic ties" with Taiwan. They are now propelled by strategic interests to establish ties with the mainland. After all, a country will seem strange if it has no diplomatic relations with the mainland.

In the globalization era, Taiwan's financial assistance has become less attractive to the smaller nations as the Chinese mainland-proposed Belt and Road Initiative expands coverage. Smaller nations need sustainable development conditions rather than temporary alms from a region which is politically suspicious in itself.

The more "allies" Taiwan loses, the smaller space there will be for Taiwan in the international community to pretend as a "country." This is a warning to Taiwan that "Taiwan independence" leads nowhere.

The Taiwan authority hopes that the US can stop these "allies" from cutting off ties with it. Washington did threaten these nations and demanded that they maintain the status quo with Taiwan. The US threats could exert some pressure, but failed to work for the Solomon Islands and Kiribati.

 

 

[Randy W]

Continuing their feistiness - from the SCMP

 

Taiwan invites US to help gauge its military strength as analysts warn of growing threat from mainland China

• Taipei’s request is first time it has publicly asked US to help assess its combat readiness and follows Donald Trump’s support for closer cooperation
• Defence experts highlight PLA’s reform programme as posing an increasing challenge to the island’s military

 

Taiwan will invite US officials to visit three times a year to help assess its defence capabilities. Photo: EPA

 

It is the first time the self-ruled island has publicly invited America to help assess its combat potential and was announced as defence analysts warned the rapid military reforms undertaken by the People’s Liberation Army in recent years posed a growing challenge to the Taiwanese military.

Miao Hui-feng, head of the defence ministry’s integrated assessment department, announced on Wednesday that the military had budgeted NT$15.25 million (US$500,000) as travel expenses for American military personnel to visitTaiwan next year to help assess its strength.

“With the help of the US, our two sides will form an ad hoc committee to jointly assess the military strength and the defence needs of Taiwan,” she told the Legislative Yuan, adding that the assessors would offer suggestion to upgrade the island’s overall defence plans.

. . .

According to Miao, the US delegates will make three five-day visits a year. They will include representatives from the Pentagon, Indo-Pacific command and special forces as well as specialists in drone warfare, undersea mines and military aircraft.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Tsai Ing-wen says Beijing must face reality that Taiwan is ‘an independent country already’

• After election win, president says in interview that island is successful democracy with decent economy and deserves respect
• She also warns against any military response, saying invading would be ‘very costly for China’

 

 

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday said mainland China needed to face the reality that the island was “an independent country already”, in remarks certain to infuriate Beijing following her election win.

In an interview with the BBC, Tsai also said the democratic island deserved respect from Beijing.

“We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,” Tsai told the BBC. “We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China, Taiwan.”

 

 

[Randy W]

Taipei complains to World Health Organisation after coronavirus case is classed as ‘Taiwan, China’

 

Island’s representative office in Geneva instructed to ‘issue a solemn protest to WHO secretary general … demand a correction’, foreign ministry says.

 

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3047432/taipei-complains-world-health-organisation-after-coronavirus?utm_content=article&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1579788165

[Greg.D.]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-china-defence/taiwan-scrambles-armed-jets-as-chinese-air-force-flies-around-island-idUSKBN2030AE

 

Taiwan scrambles armed jets as Chinese air force flies around island

 

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan’s air force scrambled armed fighters on Sunday to intercept Chinese jets that flew around the island claimed by Beijing as its own, in a move denounced by Taiwan’s Defence Ministry as a threat to regional peace and stability.

 

China has been flying what it calls “island encirclement” drills on-off since 2016 when Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen first took office.

........

China’s Eastern Theatre Command, in a statement late on Sunday carried by the official People’s Liberation Army Daily, said the aircraft carried out “real combat-oriented training”.

“Taiwan and its island are sacred and inalienable parts of China. The Chinese military’s combat ready patrol was a completely legitimate and necessary action aimed at the current situation in the Taiwan Strait and safeguarding national sovereignty.”

TAIPEI-BEIJING RELATIONS

The fly-by came as Taiwan’s vice-president elect, William Lai, was returning from a visit to Washington, where he attended the high-profile National Prayer Breakfast, at which U.S. President Donald Trump spoke. China has denounced Lai’s trip.

......

But in one small diplomatic breakthrough for Taiwan, the WHO said Taiwanese experts will participate this week in an on-line meeting of experts about the virus.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said this was a “good start” and that they would strive to take part in more WHO events.

Taiwan’s WHO troubles last week became another flashpoint in Sino-U.S. ties, with the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva telling the agency to deal directly with Taiwan’s government, drawing a sharp rebuke from China.