Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Time to start defrosting US-Taiwan relations

Walter Lohman

The US-Taiwan relationship today is all but frozen, increasing the level of anxiety in Taiwan as it tries to cope with a rising China. One hears this anxiety in conversations with officials in Taipei and in the flurry of public exhortations recently offered by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) concerning Taiwan’s defense needs.

Taiwan’s outreach to China is predicated on strong US-Taiwan ties. Ma has delivered on the outreach; it is the US that is failing to do its part. And that makes Taiwanese nervous.

US commitment deteriorating: report

Taipei Times

US policy on Taiwan under US President Barack Obama has taken a “hazardous” turn that appears to be moving toward support for Beijing’s interpretation of its core interests, the US-Taiwan Business Council said in a special commentary released on Monday.

The Obama administration appears to be “telegraphing its willingness to moderate legacy Taiwan support and cede more control to China in the dynamics and direction of cross-strait affairs,” said the report, titled The American Defense Commitment to Taiwan Continues to Deteriorate.

Can China contain People Power?

Sushil Seth

The People Power that has overthrown regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and continues to create tremors elsewhere in the Middle East has spawned debate about its ripple effect on China.

In Australia two prominent Sydney Morning Herald journalists hold different views, not about the repressive nature of the system in China, but about its ability to prevent a popular upsurge.

International editor Peter Hartcher is inclined to think that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), at the very least, is worried and nervous about the revolutionary upsurge in the Middle East and its possible impact on China.

Abandon Taiwan: US academic

Taipei Times

An article in the current issue of the influential Foreign Affairs magazine argues that to avoid military competition between the US and a rising China, Washington should consider making concessions to Beijing, including the possibility of backing away from its commitment to Taiwan.

In the article, titled “Will China’s Rise Lead to War? Why Realism Does Not Mean Pessimism,” Charles Glaser, a professor of political science and international affairs and director of the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, argues that the rise of China will be “the most important international relations story of the twenty-first century.”

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