Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

China winning around the world

Taipei Times Editorial

China’s war of diplomacy has never stopped, despite President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claims that his modus vivendi policy has put on hold a contest to woo each other’s allies. If anything, all the modus vivendi did was to take the game to a new level, where instead of trying to steal each other’s allies, they have focused their efforts on consolidating their gains over the past decade.

The new phase of China’s strategy to consolidate its diplomatic influence worldwide can readily be seen in South Africa’s refusal to grant Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama a visa to attend the 80th birthday of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

S mulling new arms sales to Taiwan

Taipei Times

US President Barack Obama’s administration is weighing fresh arms sales to Taipei as part of a sweeping effort to deter any Chinese attack on Taiwan, administration officials told the US Congress on Tuesday.

Such supplies would be on top of plans sent to Congress on Sept. 21 to sell Taiwan US$5.85 billion in new hardware and defense services, including upgrades for its 145 F-16A/B aircraft, bought in 1992.

Beijing deems arms sales to Taiwan a grave interference in its domestic affairs and the biggest obstacle to improved relations between the world’s two largest economies.

China’s big mouth may have helped Taiwan out

Edward Chen 陳一新

The US has announced plans to upgrade Taiwan’s F-16A/B aircraft, but not to sell it F-16C/Ds. Although expected, many people in Taiwan found it difficult to hide their disappointment. However, it is precisely because of Beijing’s fierce opposition to the F-16C/D sale that Taiwan stands to receive many of the systems it has been eyeing for years.

Beijing made a show of anger about the upgrade, but one can imagine that inwardly it is satisfied with the outcome. Indeed, in the US-China-Taiwan scenario, Beijing has apparently walked away with the “second-best” result — preventing the US from selling Taipei the F-16C/Ds.

Tsai lauds bilateral relations in Tokyo

Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday highlighted the US-Japan security pact as the cornerstone of stability in East Asia and the DPP’s wish to strengthen Taiwan’s relations with Japan in a speech in Tokyo.

Japan “continues to occupy a special place in the emotions of the Taiwanese people,” the DPP’s presidential candidate told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

Tsai, who is in the middle of a three-day visit to Japan, emphasized four elements in Taiwan’s relationship with Japan: security, democracy, economy, and trade and travel, as well as other areas of interaction.

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