Balance and Taiwan

Simon World had some interesting Taiwan links yesterday. John Tacik, longtime Taiwan watcher and friend of Taiwan, writes in the Weekly Standard:

Beijing's so-called "Anti-Secession Law" last March was an open-ended declaration of a casus belli against Taiwan. Since 2001, Taiwan has opened direct links between China and the offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu, licensed direct charter flights to China, relaxed investment rules, and begged for military-to-military "confidence-building measures." China has rebuffed every call from Taiwan for cross-Strait dialogue. Chinese Communist party leaders will deal only with opposition parties in Taiwan that "adhere" to the "one China principle" and oppose Taiwan's defense spending. Beijing even refused to allow a Taiwan representative to attend the December 30 funeral of Wang Daohan, Beijing's most eminent Taiwan negotiator.

In short, China has done nothing to requite Taiwan's outreach. By the time of his November visit to Beijing, President Bush had become so dismayed that he inserted a paragraph praising Taiwan's democracy into his Asia policy speech in Kyoto--a paragraph that surprised every China watcher in Washington, including those in the White House. The president, it seems, was personally trying to maintain the balance.

I know Tacik is a strong supporter of Taiwan, but I think he has hit the edge of the dartboard rather than nailed one in the center. The US position has tilted toward China, and the President is not trying to maintain the balance, but maintain a credible front that the US would intervene if China tried to annex Taiwan by force. The dynamic is that as the US tilts toward Beijing on the question of Taiwan's independence, it essentially requires itself to become even more hardline on the issue of violent annexation, in order to compensate. More on that in another blog post.

Meanwhile fumier opines:

China has asked the US to take action against Taiwan for the island's scrapping of guidelines on reunification with the mainland. Since, according to the PRC, China is one and indivisible, isn't this tantamount to asking the US to interfere in China's own internal affairs?

The article from Forbes fumier cites notes:

China has urged the United States to take firmer action against Taiwan, following a muted response by Washington to the island's scrapping of guidelines on reunification with the mainland.

'We are urging the United States... to take concrete actions to oppose Taiwan's secessionist activities for independence,' foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said, according to Agence France-Presse.

China also wanted the United States to avoid sending 'any wrong signals to the secessionist forces for Taiwan independence,' he said.

Liu was speaking after Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian formally scrapped the National Unification Council and guidelines that were set up 15 years ago to work towards an eventual reunification of Taiwan with the mainland.

Let's see. China uses the US to manage Taiwan, the US uses Taiwan to put the dampers on Chinese expansionism, and Taiwan uses the US to manage China. Rock, scissors, paper.....

[Taiwan] [US] [China] [Chen Shui-bian] [US Foreign Policy] [Taiwan Independence] [Taiwan Relations Act (TRA)] [TRA]