My Take | Taiwan should stop deluding itself that it is anything but a US pawn
- The island’s current political status is as good as it gets, and any further military partnership with Washington will deliver only diminishing returns
Say what you like about Taiwan’s new leader William Lai Ching-te, but he really did ask for it. Days after his inauguration, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted live drills around the island over several days.
It’s not the first time mainland China conducted a full encirclement exercise. After former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pointless visit to Taiwan in 2022 that was nothing but posturing and provocation, the PLA carried out full encirclement drills.
Lai’s incendiary inauguration speech likewise provoked a nasty response from the mainland.
I am not the only one criticising Lai’s speech. Even the Financial Times, which is usually pro-Taipei to a tee, admits it was a bit too provocative. Headlined “China has a point about Taiwan’s leader”, its respected Greater China correspondent wrote that “Lai’s language on sovereignty has already strayed from the path taken by his more cautious predecessor”.
If he made such a declaration on his first official day in office, what is he planning to do for the rest of his term? No wonder he said people should not entertain “delusions” about cross-strait peace.
It takes quite a bit of recklessness for Lai to make his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, look “cautious”. He did so by calling the island “a nation” with “sovereignty” at his inauguration.