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PRC not 'responsible stakeholder': Tsai
RISING CHALLENGE: Randall Schriver, chief executive of the Project 2049
Institute, said China posed comprehensive challenges that required a
comprehensive response
By Ko Shu-ling and Vincent Y. Chao
STAFF REPORTERS
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2010, Page 1
At an international conference on China’s rise yesterday,
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) accused
Beijing of refusing to be a “responsible stakeholder” in regional peace, adding
that her party would continue to urge the US to sell defensive weapons to
Taiwan.
Tsai said that as other countries strive to rebalance the global economy, China
continues to subsidize state-owned enterprises, manipulate interest rates and
pursue “indigenous innovation,” which effectively means stealing other nations’
intellectual property.
“In Copenhagen, China also showed that it was not willing to be a ‘responsible
stakeholder,’ but rather wishes to have a free ride as a ‘developing nation,’”
she said.
There has been developing discomfort with Chinese practices, she said, adding
that China’s assertive claim over the South China Sea has cast a chill over
relations with other countries in the region.
Her party, whether in power or not, would continue to urge the US to sell
defensive weapons to Taiwan “the sooner, the better,” she said.
“We need sufficient security deterrence capability to have no fear in our future
negotiations with China,” she said. “We trust the US will adhere to the Taiwan
Relations Act, not only to provide necessary defensive weapons to Taiwan, but
also to maintain a significant presence in the region to deter China from
initiating any military adventures.”
Tsai made the remarks during a keynote speech she gave on the first day of an
international conference titled: “A Rising Chinese Hegemony and Challenges to
the Region.” The two-day event was hosted by Taiwan Brain Trust and Project 2049
Institute at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel in Taipei.
Unlike its Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart, Tsai said since the
creation of the DPP more than two decades ago, it had been fighting for the
rights of all people, democratic participation in decision-making and fair and
respectful trade relations.
The key element underpinning the party’s international policy is to adhere to
the values of democracy to build up the country’s international relations, she
said.
“Instead of turning to China as ‘the future’ — that is, the way President Ma
[Ying-jeou, 馬英九] and the KMT are inclined to do — our objective is to work with
our democratic friends around the world and then reach out to China,” she said.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an interesting example of how this might
be done, she said, adding that she hoped the TPP would emerge as an economic
organization that is inclusive and keeps China’s economic practices in line with
the rule of law, protection of intellectual property rights, proper currency
evaluation and fair domestic policies.
Meanwhile, Randall Schriver, chief executive of the Project 2049 Institute,
expressed concern over Washington’s restraint and its ability to respond in a
comprehensive way to China’s challenge.
Schriver said China posed comprehensive challenges that required a comprehensive
response. The challenges included military buildup, increase in defense budgets,
economic challenges and China’s attempt to integrate economic and trade strategy
with diplomatic and security challenges.
“We need to collaboratively think about how to respond to this challenge across
all spectrum of issues,” Schriver said.
“This is indeed an important time, indeed an important issue and the United
States must play a role in my mind if we are going to respond in the most
effective way possible, but as the United States is losing its confidence, it’s
their impression that it’s time to reach accommodation and work more
cooperatively with Beijing,” he said.
The US is deeply engaged with Beijing on a full spectrum of bilateral, regional
and global issues, he said, but he hoped the conversations were oriented in the
right way to ensure that China’s emergence is not becoming a threat to peace,
security, stability and sustainable freedom that the Taiwanese and other Asians
have worked so hard to enjoy.
Other panelists said Taiwan’s future would become increasingly subject to
growing Chinese economic and military power amid warming cross-strait ties.
“While China has a professed desire for peaceful annexation ... it is
[unwilling] to renounce the use of force under circumstances in Taiwan declared
as ‘red lines,’” defense analyst Kazuhisa Ogawa said.
The red lines include any formal moves toward independence, internal unrest,
indefinite delays in the resumption of cross-strait dialogue on unification and
the stationing of foreign troops on Taiwanese soil, he said, citing a US
Department of Defense report.
Furthering this agenda is an annual double-digit increase in China’s defense
spending over the last 21 years and the annual addition of about 100 short-range
ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, he said.
The remarks came one day after a Taiwanese military intelligence report said the
number of Chinese missiles aimed at the country could reach 2,000 by the end of
this year. It said China’s military preparations for an attack on Taiwan have
continued to accelerate.
Mark Stokes, executive director at Project 2049, said that Taiwan served as the
principal reason why China continued to develop missile capabilities.
Driven by this scenario, Beijing’s capacity to conduct a successful air campaign
is surpassing the defensive capabilities its neighbors can maintain, the former
US Air Force officer said.
The most important contributor to this imbalance was China’s deployment of
ballistic and conventional missiles, he said.
At the same time that Beijing continues to develop its military forces,
panelists said the Asian giant is aiming to increase its influence over
Taiwan’s domestic politics by offering the country economic sweeteners.
Lin Cheng-yi (林正義), a researcher of European and American Studies at Academia
Sinica, said China would attempt to use its rapidly growing economy as a tool
for cross-strait unification.
“To purchase or to buy Taiwan is less expensive than to attack Taiwan. To let
Taiwan surrender, it will attack the [Taiwanese] people’s minds, rather than
attack Taiwanese cities,” he said.
An example of this was the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA),
which lowers cross-strait tariffs and customs barriers, he said.
Opposition parties have said the agreement, which is set to heavily favor
Taiwanese interests, plays into China interests, economic integration, and could
one day lead to political integration.
However, it is not clear whether Taiwan has an alternative other than to sign
the agreement, European Centre for International Political Economy Director
Razeen Sally said.
He said that with China rising economically, globalization for Taiwan would have
to go through China.
“The east is becoming more China-centered, whether we like or not ... The bottom
line is that globalization goes through China and there is no alternative,” he
said.
In the short term, it is unlikely that Taiwan would see a major shift in its de
facto independence because of closer economic integration, as Beijing will
likely go along with KMT claims that economic cooperation does not impact on
politics, he said.
“Now, whether Taiwan can maintain a separate identity in those conditions going
beyond the short-term is, I think, the big question,” he said.
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