Category: Security

What Does the Ukraine Crisis Tell Us About the Fate of Taiwan?

Written by Raian Hossain. The Russian invasion of Ukraine raises a serious concern over international peace, security, and stability. This led to numerous debates among analysts, academics, and journalists over the possibility of Beijing’s aggregation toward Taipei. There are good reasons why such concerns are in discussion. Chinese fighters’ incursion of Taiwan’s Air Defence Zone has become a regular practice in recent times. Hence, these lead toward analysing the possibility of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) invasion of the Republic of China (ROC), often known as Taiwan, using the lens of security, political economy, and diplomacy.

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Ukraine and Taiwan: Comparison, Interaction, and Demonstration

Written by Yu-Shan Wu. Comparisons have been made between Ukraine and Taiwan, with the ominous implication that Taiwan may become Ukraine in the foreseeable future, i.e., a weak country attacked by its much stronger neighbour. Most of the comparisons are shallow in that they simply draw on the obvious power asymmetry that exists between Russia and Ukraine and between mainland China and Taiwan, as well as the hostile intention of the mighty country toward the lesser power. However, the structural similarities between the two cases run much deeper.

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Bridging Islands of/beyond Borders: Dongyin and Yonaguni

Written by Yi-Yu Lai. While the COVID-19 has stopped many individuals from travelling and interacting over the last two years, some cultural exchanges that we never expected to see have emerged during the pandemic. For example, on February 18th, 2022, people in Dongyin, an insular township in Taiwan’s Matsu Islands, had their first online workshop with those from Yonaguni, an island that belongs to Okinawa. Both islands are considered frontiers in their respective countries, and they had many comparable fates throughout history. Therefore, such a cultural exchange between the islands was particularly impressive because it was an activity with the islands as the focal point.

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A Reflection on the UK’s Parliamentary Reaffirmation to Bolster Economic, Security & Develop Strategic Ties with Taiwan

Written by Raian Hossain. Most importantly, the debate at the House of Commons has highlighted a strong unity among different political parties’ parliamentarians in bolstering ties with Taiwan in all possible ways, be it economic, helping the island in international recognition, along with ensuring peace, security, and stability across the Taiwan Strait region. The cross-party unity approach ensures much more robust ties between UK-Taiwan in the upcoming days despite which party forms government in London in future.

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Taiwan and China: What Way Forward?Looking at Taiwan in its own light and its own right

Tensions surrounding Taiwan have risen significantly. How will the situation develop in 2022? China has upped the ante by sending almost 1,000 aircraft into Taiwan’s ADIZ zone in the past year and by objecting to any moves by Taiwan to enhance its international relations. Furthermore, just the past weekend, China sent 39 aircraft into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in one day, Sunday, January 23rd, followed by 13 aircraft on Monday.

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President Biden’s Emerging Clarity on Taiwan: “Strategic ambiguity” is not a policy, but more like a bicycle gearshift

Written by Gerrit van der Wees. Over the past few months, President Biden has made some statements that show increasing clarity on where he stands on Taiwan. he first episode took place in mid-August 2021, when – in the aftermath of the Fall of Kabul and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan – Biden was asked in an ABC interview by George Stephanopoulos whether other allies such as Taiwan could count on the Americans. In his answer, Biden stated: We have made — kept every commitment.

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What’s behind the spike in Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone?

Written by Corey Bell. A problem in recent public commentary on tensions between China and Taiwan has been a conflation of what we know and what we fear. Nowhere is this more evident than on the topic of incursions by Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, or ADIZ. is month saw a shift from a pattern of incremental increases in the number of People’s Liberation Army Air Force aircraft participating in coordinated incursions into Taiwanese airspace to an exponential explosion. The campaign peaked at 56 aircraft on 4 October, with 159 over the four-day period of 1–4 October.

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Strategic Focus Areas for Taiwan’s Burgeoning Domestic Space Industry

Written by Jason Wang. While Taiwan’s democratic IP-friendly government, hardware, and engineering talents give the nation a competitive advantage in the global New Space industry, complex challenges still lie ahead. Specifically, how effectively can the Tsai Administration rally a whole-of-government approach to reduce the friction of building a domestic ecosystem that encourages international new space players to stay and grow with Taiwan? Six strategic focus areas will be discussed in the following paragraphs: Infrastructure for new space industry development, Risk-tolerant funding, a.k.a the Taiwan Space Fund, Spectrum and orbital slots, Space situational awareness, Software applications not well as hardware, an education system redesigned to produce multidisciplinary talent and more women.

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In the Wake of the Afghanistan Withdrawal, the US Must Send the Right Signals on Taiwan (Part II)

Written by Corey Lee Bell. In part one of this series, I discussed how important it is for the US to move quickly to convince China that its withdrawal from Afghanistan is not symptomatic of a retreat towards isolationism but rather part of a strategy of redirecting American resources to the Indo-Pacific and the defence of Taiwan in particular. However, with the Biden administration likely to stop short of formally declaring ‘strategic clarity’ (i.e., that it will definitely fight China if it invaded or embargoed Taiwan), and with China thus far having a low estimation of America’s resolve and capacity to defend the island, I suggested demonstrating this through actions that show that America is not only strengthening its regional presence, but also its preparedness and combat readiness.

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The Fall of Afghanistan: Why Taiwan is Fundamentally Different?

Written by Gerrit van der Wees. The scenes from the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan are heart-wrenching. One would have hoped that the withdrawal by the United States and its Allies could have been planned such that it would be taking place in a more orderly fashion. Many an analysis will be written on this topic (…) A brief scan of the internet shows that Beijing’s propaganda machine is already hard at work to capitalize on the moment by publishing several articles implying that Taiwan could befall the same fate.

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Avoiding a Military Conflict over Taiwan

Written by Scott L. Kastner. relationship has become dramatically more antagonistic since 2016. Since taking office in that year, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has been less willing to accommodate the PRC on core sovereignty issues than was her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou. Beijing, in turn, has steadily increased coercive pressure on the island. Most notably, PRC military activities near Taiwan have increased sharply over the past few years.

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Is it Time to Relinquish Taiwan?

Written by Elizabeth Freund Larus. In his April 2021 Foreign Affairs article “Washington Is Avoiding the Tough Questions on Taiwan and China,” international relations scholar Charles Glaser asks whether it is time for the United States to relinquish maritime hegemony in the Asia-Pacific. He concludes that Washington should retrench those areas that would be unacceptably costly in terms of lives and treasure to defend. One of those places is Taiwan. This determination method is reminiscent of Dean Acheson’s 1950 “perimeter speech.” He excluded South Korea and Taiwan from the US defensive perimeter in East Asia in the early years of the Cold War. Stalin and Mao were watching, and we know how the story on the Korean peninsula ended.

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