Category: Taiwan

PH: Compared To China, US Trade, Investment Offers Laughable + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Compared To China, US Trade, Investment Offers Laughable

On the other hand, the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) donations of China alone that are reality– Chico River Irrigation Pump, Davao Bucana Bridge, Estrella-Pantaleon and Binondo-Intramuros Bridge, the ongoing Kaliwa Dam Project that would provide 600/mld (million liters per day) to drying Metro-Manila and hundreds other projects– already count billions of dollars, not to mention private investments like DITO Telecoms’ $ 3.9 billion investment in our telecom sector.

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Lighting Up the Gray Zone: The Philippines-Taiwan Counter-Coercion Toolkit

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Perry World House’s Thomas Shattuck and Robin Garcia are out with an important new white paper which recommends the public release of visual information to counter China’s coercive activities, using the Philippines and Taiwan as examples. As the champions of “assertive transparency”, SeaLight enthusiastically welcomes this timely new scholarship!

Lighting Up the Gray Zone: The Philippines-Taiwan Counter-Coercion Toolkit

Perry World House is at the University of Pennsylvania, another university funded by the US government. I’ve updated my Project Myoushu document, to reflect the following:

The origin of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. It’s sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, an organization within the Department of Navy. I saw it over at the Asian Century Journal, yesterday.

From a previous post.

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Documents

Japan, U.S. and Philippines to discuss stronger military ties & US, Philippines to expand strategic port

Japan, U.S. and Philippines to discuss stronger military ties & US, Philippines to expand strategic port

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Japan, U.S. and Philippines to discuss stronger military ties

The three foreign ministers will discuss ways to strengthen cooperation in the wake of increasing collisions in the South China Sea between ships from the Philippines and China.

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They agreed to work toward signing a Reciprocal Access Agreement that would make it easier for members of the Self-Defense Forces and the Philippine military to engage in joint training exercises by simplifying procedures to obtain visas and bring weapons and ammunition into each other’s countries.

Japan will also provide funds for the Philippines to acquire a coastal surveillance radar system.

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US, Philippines to expand strategic port

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Taiwan commanders authorized to use force against intruding enemy military aircraft, vessels

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Taiwan commanders authorized to use force against intruding enemy military aircraft, vessels

Source

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) clarified its definition of “first strike,” saying it considered any Chinese military asset crossing into Taiwan’s territorial borders as an act of aggression.

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Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said that this definition was updated shortly after former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan — when China held live-fire military drills around the nation to express its dissatisfaction.

The Taiwan Strait is “on the brink” of a heightened level of alert, Chiu said at a Foreign and National Defense Committee session on Thursday (March 7). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has ramped up the frequency of its air and naval operations. He said PLA activities are now creeping closer to Taiwan and have slowly entered “gray areas” from the north and south.

To deter China from escalating tensions in the strait, U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday (March 5) requiring the U.S. Department of the Treasury to terminate the United States-People’s Republic of China Income Tax Convention if Beijing attacks Taiwan.

Related:

Containing China: US Using Taiwan as East Asian “Ukraine”

Report: US Military Advisors Deployed to Taiwan-Controlled Islands on China’s Coast

China’s top leaders adopt measured tone on Taiwan at Two Sessions meetings

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China’s top leaders adopt measured tone on Taiwan at Two Sessions meetings

In his work report delivered on Tuesday (March 5), Premier Li Qiang only broadly restated China’s usual position on Taiwan, while Wang Huning – the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) fourth-ranked official – kept mention of cross-strait ties to a minimum in another report a day earlier.

Li said Beijing will “resolutely oppose separatist activities aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’ and external interference”, while promoting the “peaceful development of cross-strait relations” – language that has remained broadly similar to previous years’.

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While it was unusual for “external interference” to feature in the work report, other Chinese leaders have used the term when addressing Taiwan policy in recent years, such as President Xi Jinping at the twice-a-decade party congress in October 2022.

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Dr Li Nan, visiting senior research fellow at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said the fact that the wording on Taiwan remained largely similar indicates that Beijing’s current Taiwan policy will continue, including with a heavier emphasis on deterrence.

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Dr James Char, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that, for now, the Chinese military will probably continue to stick to military operations below the threshold of war to achieve China’s national objectives.