Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ukraine a harbinger for Taiwan

Taipei Times Editorial

For several weeks, US and UK intelligence agencies have been warning that the Kremlin might be planning a “false flag” operation against Ukraine which would give the more than 100,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukraine border casus belli to invade the country on the grounds of protecting ethnic Russians.

As sure as eggs are eggs, last week a Ukrainian nursery school in the breakaway Donbas region was hit by artillery fire. The leader of the Donbas separatist government immediately said that Ukrainian forces had shelled the nursery, while Kyiv blamed Russian forces for the attack and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested he had seen intelligence showing the Kremlin had engineered the attack.

West must support Ukraine, or fallout might involve Taiwan: UK’s Johnson

Taipei Times

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks to reporters during the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday.
Photo: AFP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said that if Western nations failed to fulfill their promises to support Ukraine’s independence, it would have damaging consequences worldwide, including for Taiwan.

Russian troops are massed near Ukraine’s borders, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen military exercises by strategic nuclear missile forces, but Russia rejects Western concerns that it is poised to invade.

Nixon’s gamble on China paid off

Pei Minxin 裴敏欣

With China being the only country capable of unseating the US as the leading global power, many in Washington may wish that former US president Richard Nixon had never made his historic trip to China 50 years ago this month.

In their revisionist narrative, it was Nixon’s meeting with then-Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong (毛澤東), and the policy of engagement it initiated, that helped make China an economic superpower and a geopolitical threat to the US. For these critics, the Nixon visit, far from being a stroke of diplomatic genius, was one of history’s greatest strategic blunders.

Grasping Ukraine situation is vital

Jerry Liu 劉仕傑

It is concerning that Taiwanese do not seem to be paying much attention to what is happening in Ukraine, as the Russian military’s build-up brings the region to the brink of war, and the US and Russian governments continue to probe each other.

In a way, this is understandable, as Ukraine is a long way from Taiwan and far from the preoccupations of ordinary Taiwanese.

As a former diplomat, I feel it is my responsibility to help Taiwanese understand the importance of paying attention to the crisis.

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