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5/25/13 6:17 AMTaiwan Today

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(CNA photos)

Opinion

Redirecting strength of major powers to Taiwans advantage

Publication Date05/26/2013

SourceChina Times

As the U.S. and mainland China leverage the Taiwan-Philippine fishing boat dispute to their

own purposes, the challenge for Taipei is how to redirect their strength to its own advantage.

Under Washingtons return to Asia policy, announced in 2009, the East China and South

China seas are crucial strategic regions, making Japan and the Philippines mercenaries

protecting U.S. interests by preventing Beijings naval power from breaking through the first

island chain blocking its access to the Western Pacific.

Such services do not come cheap. In the East China Sea, Washington paid by strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance to boost

Tokyos confidence; in the South China Sea it awarded Manila by reaffirming the mutual defense treaty, thus enhancing its

international position. This explains all the recent flag waving in Japan and the Philippines, while the U.S. sits by calmly.

But mercenaries have no special loyalty. Out of domestic political considerations, both Japan and the Philippines have been

raising a clamor over sovereignty issues in their regions, creating greater tensions than the U.S. expected or can control, and

providing an opening for Beijings military might to sail right in unopposed. This has upset Washingtons Asia-Pacific strategy

and altered the balance of power in East Asia.

The U.S. focus in returning to Asia is on a rebalanced relationship of competing powers allowing for equilibrium between

Washington and Beijing. The hue and cry raised last year for election purposes by right-wing Japanese elements regarding

sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands gave mainland China a legitimate excuse for regular patrols of the archipelago, and thus

direct access to the Pacific.

At the same time, the controversy provided Beijings navy with justification for operating on a normal basis in the waters between

Yonaguni and Ishigaki islands, gateway to the East China Sea.

From this new position, mainland China hopes to develop a route from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, while the U.S.

has had to fall back on defending the South China Sea, creating an opportunity for the Philippines to use Washingtons supportto advance its own purposes. The tensions between Taipei and Manila over the Philippine shooting of a Taiwan fisherman have

created a natural opportunity for the U.S., mainland China and the Philippines to each promote its own interests.

This situation explains the vague position taken by Washington regarding the fishing boat incident, Beijings aggressive stance

and Manilas unusually tough attitude.

To the U.S., the strategic value of the South China Sea is much greater than that of the East China Sea, as it involves freedom

of navigation and long-distance routes accessing the Indian Ocean. Thus pressure on Taipei from Washington is now greater

than it was in the case of the Diaoyutais, with the result that Taiwan has been especially careful in its military exercises and

economic sanctions against the Philippines.

As the U.S. does not wish to see Beijing expand its military influence in the South China

Sea, it is especially concerned about whether Taipei and Beijing join forces in the Taiwan-Philippines fisheries dispute.

For its part, mainland China wants to take advantage of the circumstances to expand its

military influence from the East China Sea to the South China Sea, which is why it quickly

took a position on the fishing clash and dispatched the aircraft carrier Liaoning to the South

China Sea, creating the false impression of joint action with Taiwan.

After the U.S. withdrew from Subic Bay naval station and Clark Air Base, military cooperation with the Philippines steadily

declined, especially in the last 10 years as Washingtons strategic focus was on the Middle East. Even though military

collaboration has been re-established and the two sides have conducted several joint exercises, mutual trust is still very weak.

Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III is thus using the mounting tensions over the fishing incident to test the strength of

U.S. support for the Philippines, which explains why his government has wavered back and forth.

Taiwan, stuck in the middle of all this, has nevertheless been given an opportunity to thoroughly review fishing rights agreements

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Taiwan fishermen there. In the past Taipei paid more attention to fisheries disputes with Japan, but Vietnam and the Philippines

have actually done much greater harm to the Taiwans fishermen.

The test for the government is to find a way to redirect the energies of the major powers to help the ROC more effectively defend

the Dongsha (Pratas) Islands and Taiping Island in the South China Sea, thus extending its strategic influence further south from

the Bashi Channel and safeguarding the southern limits of the countrys territorial waters. (THN)

Tsai Zheng-jia is director of Asia Pacific Studies, the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University. These

views are the authors and not necessarily those of Taiwan Today. Copyright 2013 Tsai Zheng-jia

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