With a Taiwan contingency increasingly more plausible, Taiwanese lobbies in Japan are calling for the government to pass a version of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), emulating the US precedent. Such a measure would surely enable Tokyo to make formal and regular contact with Taipei for dialogue, consultation, policy coordination and planning in military security. This would fill the missing link of the trilateral US-Japan-Taiwan security ties, rendering a US military defense of Taiwan more feasible through the support of the US-Japan alliance.

Yet, particular caution should be exercised, as Beijing would probably view the move as a serious challenge to its ambition to annex Taiwan. Tokyo’s security-seeking move might then provoke Beijing only to destabilize cross-strait relations and possibly give it a pretext for aggression, as China is more confident than ever in its military power and coercive diplomacy.

Lawmakers signal their parties’ stances on the third reading of draft amendments to the National Security Act at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times

The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed amendments setting penalties for economic espionage of up to 12 years in prison or a NT$100 million (US$3.37 million) fine, and banning employees in key industries from traveling to China without permission, as it seeks to stifle theft of key technologies.

A deadly shooting in southern California has sent shock waves throughout Taiwan.

On Sunday, 40 members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church had gathered in Laguna Woods for a luncheon in honor of Pastor Billy Chang (張承宗), when David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, allegedly entered the church and opened fire, killing one churchgoer and injuring five others.

As the church has long backed Taiwan’s independence from China, law enforcement officials suspect Chou targeted it out of anger over its stance.