Straight News: The Trump administration is coming to an end, but Pompeo and others are continuing to play the “Taiwan card” like crazy, and recently, they are encouraging Taiwan’s representative office in the U.S. to change its name, what are your observations?
Contributor Sun Xingjie: In an interview with the media this year, Fu Gaoyi, a famous American expert on China who died a few days ago, warned the Taiwan authorities not to always listen to the U.S., but to listen carefully to the messages released by China and make the right judgment. But now it seems that the Taiwan authorities have indeed fallen into the trap of Trump and Pompeo.
The Trump administration has been “selling abductors” to the Taiwanese authorities to make money and get Taiwan to serve the interests of the United States.
After the election, Trump’s prospects of overturning the election results are getting slimmer and slimmer, while the U.S. policy toward China seems to have entered a drunken orgy. On the one hand, the Taiwan authorities have become a receiving station for U.S. weaponry, regardless of price and performance. In recent times, the Trump administration has passed a series of arms sales to Taiwan, while the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act also proposes to ensure Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare capabilities.
In other words, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan have entered a new phase where Taiwan must buy, and whether or not they can enhance Taiwan’s power is not a concern for the United States. Therefore, some rational Taiwanese people believe that this is just a waste of Taiwan taxpayers’ money, a waste of public money, and ultimately, just a brave man.
With the military power across the Taiwan Strait reversed long ago, Taiwan’s purchase of armaments from the U.S. is nothing more than buying some psychological comfort, or a childish act of walking around humming a minor tune at night. Now the Taiwanese authorities have been tied to the U.S. arms sales wagon and have been carrying out the charade of selling abduction, with the U.S. peddling a sense of threat and anxiety to Taiwan, and incidentally selling surplus weaponry to the Taiwanese army.
Other U.S. government departments have not been idle either. The Pompeo-led State Department has continued to challenge the “one-China” principle in diplomacy, speculating on the name of Taiwan’s representative office in the U.S. in an attempt to keep China in check diplomatically, but Taiwan has not gained anything from this, and on the contrary, has greatly increased the risk of the situation in the Taiwan Strait getting out of hand.
For the U.S., Taiwan is just a pawn that costs nothing, but for Taiwan, it is a deadly thing. Taiwan seems to have fallen into the trap of “Stockholm Syndrome” and is prostrate under the U.S. approach of playing the “Taiwan card”. Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had planned to visit Taiwan, but the price of chartered flights was too expensive and the Taiwan authorities were in frequent contact with the EPA. It can be said that Taiwan is not only kneeling before the United States, but also prostrating itself as a pawn.
The Taiwan issue is just one of the U.S. cards to contain China, and recently the U.S. government has passed a series of China-related bills during the Trump administration’s few remaining terms. The U.S. Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Commerce are near bottomless in challenging China’s bottom line for the Trump administration’s final madness. China is carrying out a reasonable and favorable counter-measure to avoid a runaway rollover of Sino-US relations.
At the same time, Trump is trying or intending to dig a hole for the Biden administration to set up a trap and make it more difficult to improve Sino-US relations, but the Trump administration is precisely creating political leverage for Biden as well, who may selectively play the game with China, provided that a comprehensive assessment of Trump’s policy toward China is made. So now U.S. policy toward China and U.S.-China relations are entering a very delicate moment, with a complex relationship forming between China and the current U.S. administration as well as the administration-in-waiting. This is a very big test for China’s diplomatic policy toward the U.S., and the Taiwanese authorities, who are willing to be pawns of the Trump administration, may also be in a difficult position later on.
Straight News: On December 22, the air forces of China and Russia organized the second joint strategic air patrol in the Asia-Pacific region. What are your observations?
Special commentator Sun Xingjie: On December 22, the second joint air strategic patrol between the Chinese and Russian air forces in the Asia-Pacific region has been successfully concluded.
The first point is that this is the second strategic cruise held by China and Russia, the last strategic cruise was held on July 23 last year. Judging from the frequency of strategic cruises, we can imagine that in the future, China-Russia air strategic cruises may be normalized and annual joint strategic cruises will be held. As the spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Defense responded, this is a part of the routine military cooperation held between China and Russia, which is part of the 2020 military cooperation plan, and its goal is to enhance the capability of joint operations between the two armies and improve the level of cooperation between the armies of the two countries, I think Routine and regular joint patrols will become an important element of the Sino-Russian strategic cooperative partnership.
Second, the warplanes sent by both sides compared to last year, the Chinese side sent four Boom-6K strategic bombers, while the Russian side sent the same number of warplanes as last year. From this change in numbers, we can see that China has the will and ability to maintain strategic balance and stability in this region. At the same time, China’s defense modernization is improving.
The third is the same area as last year’s Russian-Chinese strategic patrols, which is the relevant airspace from the Sea of Japan to the East China Sea. The statement of the Chinese Ministry of Defense shows that China and Russia have strictly complied with international law and have not entered the airspace of other countries. The strategic cruise is an important step for China and Russia to strengthen global strategic stability. I personally believe that the core of global strategic stability is the global balance of strategic nuclear forces. As the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy is becoming more and more threatening and militarized, and NATO’s involvement in the Indo-Pacific region is increasing, it undoubtedly threatens the strategic stability and balance in the Asia-Pacific region.
On December 22, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and both sides opposed U.S. actions that undermine multilateralism and resist U.S. repression of China and Russia. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the more chaotic the world is, the more stable the Sino-Russian relations must be, and the more valuable the value of comprehensive strategic cooperation between the two sides is for China, Russia and the world. In the recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on Russian and Chinese companies, Russia and China uphold the principle of non-alignment, because Russian-Chinese strategic cooperation is not directed at third parties, but Russian-Chinese cooperation and strategic collaboration are not capped. Now that the United States has taken the initiative to play the role of a common threat to China and Russia, resisting the U.S. hegemonic car has become an important element of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership.
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