Problems behind Taiwan’s ‘Nazi parade’
A school event in Taiwan came to the forefront of international media last week. A group of students from a…
Diplomacy can be quirky when not decidedly cold. Donald Trump has caused a flutter in the international roost weeks before his inaugural as the President of the United States of America. He himself has been left wondering how the “US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment, but I should not accept a congratulatory call.” Through the prism of diplomatic courtesy, he may be right. “She CALLED ME,” (both words in capital) was his observation on Twitter. Yet it would be rather too simplistic to aver that it was an exchange of diplomatic pleasantries. Yes and no, one could argue. We do not know what precisely transpired through the trans-continental ether; yet we do know that the call runs counter to the “One China Policy”, verily the bedrock of US relations with China which considers Taiwan to be a “renegade province”. Hence the almost immediate protest lodged by Beijing barely a fortnight after President Xi Jinping’s congratulatory call to Trump. The other point of international consternation is that the President-elect — by inexperience or design — has consciously deviated from 37 years of US policy towards Taiwan… ever since President Jimmy Carter switched relations from Taiwan to China (1979). The “One China Policy” was of course formulated by President Richard Nixon. And so it has been for successive US Presidents till the next resident of the White House seemed to go off at a tangent last Saturday.
Sino-US relations will be jolted to its foundations if Trump seeks to overturn relations between Washington and Beijing and the international order in the wider geopolitical perspective. Trump’s accidental — or perhaps wilful — breach of protocol adds to the challenges in the relationship between Beijing and the incoming US administration, though the call won’t trigger a bout of shadow-boxing in the region. As long as Taiwan refrains from declaring independence — which at this juncture seems unlikely — China is much too calculating to make an aggressive move. In fact, relations between Taiwan and China have progressed especially in trade over the past few years, despite the fact that they still do not recognise each other. It may still be an uphill task for Taiwan to gain permanent membership of the comity of nations. Yet as the 22nd strongest economy in the world, she is said to be the most prepared for it. There is little doubt that the billionaire has caught the Beijing leadership with its pants down, the telephone interaction being described as a “wake-up” call by China’s academic circuit. Bamboozled no less must be the American establishment, now going through the motions of transition. Donald Trump has rushed in where his predecessors had feared to tread. More accurately, the interaction with Taiwan has been no less puzzling than his election.
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