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China Is Tightening the Screws on
Taiwan. Will Trump Act – and Risk Losing Beijing?
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Photo:
Ulet Ifansasti/Getty
Beijing continues
to wage a diplomatic and military pressure campaign to coerce Taiwan to rejoin
China. The U.S. Congress is lobbying the Trump
administration to support Taiwan, but the White House needs Beijing to
keep pressure on a nuclear North Korea.
- Tensions
in the Taiwan Strait have been icy since an independence-leaning
party won both the presidential election and a majority of seats in
Taiwan’s parliament in 2016. President Tsai Ing-wen has struggled to
balance the pro-independence elements from her party, insisting she
supports the “status quo” – neither independence nor reunification –
but Beijing doesn’t trust her commitment.
- China
has pursued a series of moves to diplomatically isolate Taipei from
allies
and also threatened economic repercussions. The U.S. tradition of
“strategic ambiguity” in its approach to cross-strait relations in
the face of increasingly provocative military and diplomatic
broadsides by China has left Taipei uncertain of Washington’s
support.
- While
President Donald Trump himself sent mixed signals, members of his national
security team have tried to reassure Taiwan, seeing the island as a
bulwark against Chinese expansionism. But the strongest action has
come from Congress. How will the Trump administration weigh the
imperative of protecting democratic Taiwan, versus an expansionist
Beijing that Trump needs to deal with the nuclear challenge of North
Korea?
Read the full brief,
with expert commentary from:
- Gordon Chang, China expert &
author of The Coming Collapse of China
- Mark Stokes,
Executive Director, Project 2049 Institute
- Michael S. Chase,
RAND senior political scientist & adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins
SAIS China Studies and Strategic Studies Departments
- Russell Hsiao,
Executive Director, Global Taiwan Institute
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“Where Are the Grownups?” Holding Harassers and their
Bosses Accountable
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When will the wave
of accountability for harassment encompass those in the chain of command
in large organizations, including the national security realm?
Carmen Landa
Middleton writes that recent revelations of abuse by
Oxfam employees—and failure to act by the aid agency’s higher-ups—may
signal that this “next wave” of accountability has arrived.
Middleton,
whose career at the CIA included overseeing the launch of an
anti-harassment program within the agency, comments on why leaders should
take serious note of the Oxfam case:
- “In
the past several months, we have witnessed the removal, resignation,
investigation, and loss of reputation of many powerful alleged
harassers. But only in the last few weeks, have we begun to see this
second wave of accountability – directed at those who allowed the
harassment to happen on their watch.”
- “Good
leaders are taking this opportunity to assess whether some aspects
of their organizational cultures need to change…The Senate intelligence
committee in December asked the Director of National Intelligence to
step up efforts to counter sexual harassment in national security agencies.
Senate foreign relations committee members…recently asked Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson and USAID Administrator Mark Green to review
and analyze their data to better understand the scope of sexual
harassment and assault issues at the department and agency, as well
as make appropriate policy changes to address the problem.”
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