The Straits Herald (reporter Hong Weisheng Xue Yang) The US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee recently passed the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022" (FY 2022 NDAA), and the House of Representatives will discuss and vote next week. The contents of the bill were so loud that the US Congress proposed that the US Department of Defense should invite Taiwan to participate in the Rim of the Pacific Military Exercise (PIMPAC). Can the Taiwan Navy really participate in the RIMPAC military exercise as desired? Next, let's listen to the views of experts and scholars on the island.
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The Rim of the Pacific Military Exercise, led by the United States and held every two years, is currently the world's largest international maritime exercise, and the Platon Has Been Invited to Participate. Being able to participate in the Rim of the Pacific Military Exercise is the dream of the Taiwan military. Liu Shifang said that if standing in the role of observers should not be too much of a problem, of course, he is optimistic about its success; Zhao Tianlin claimed that "this is an epoch-making milestone in structure", and if it is approved by the US Congress and signed by Biden, it will be of great help to Taiwan-US military cooperation and security in the Indo-Pacific region.
Zhang Qilu, a "legislator" of the People's Party with strong "Taiwan independence" colors, also said that if he has the opportunity to be invited to participate in military exercises, it will naturally be of positive significance to enhancing Taiwan's self-defense capability. In particular, the United States, Japan, the United States and the ROK have already had public routine military exercises, but military cooperation under the Taiwan-US platform has also been in practice for many years, and if we can further participate in the Rim of the Pacific Military Exercise and let the cooperation between the two sides officially jump on the table, it will of course be a positive development to promote cooperation between Taiwan and its "allies."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > "is putting Taiwan in the line of fire."</h1>
As early as 2018, Yan Defa, then the "defense minister" of the Taiwan authorities, declared that he had "always been fighting for it", and last summer there was also news that the army might be invited to participate, but in the end it was not resolved.
Xie Zhichuan, an associate researcher at the Chinese Kuomintang think tank, analyzed to this reporter that Taiwan's participation in the issue of the RIMPAC military exercise will only stop at the level of proposals and words. Even if a bill is passed, it will be regarded as a recommendation rather than a mandatory implementation, and it will end in vain. "The United States also knows in its heart that if Taiwan participates in the military exercises, it will violate the three Sino-US joint communiques and cross the bottom line set by the Chinese mainland, and the consequences will be unimaginable." But for the DPP, of course, they want to show the so-called "major progress in Taiwan-US relations" and create the illusion that the United States and Taiwan have close military cooperation, so they are happy to dance with it.
Chen Yixin, former director of the Institute of American Studies at Tamkang University in Taiwan, also holds a similar view, holding that Sino-US relations have not yet reached such a fierce level of confrontation, that the odds of Taiwan being invited to participate in the RIMPAC military exercise are unlikely, and that the United States has no intention of causing this trouble and does not want to provoke Chinese mainland.
Chen Yuzhen
Chen Yuzhen, a "legislator" of the Kuomintang, said bluntly that participating in military exercises or not participating in military exercises is in fact a difficult problem, and in any case, "it is pushing Taiwan into the line of fire." The Taiwan Strait has become "the most dangerous area on the surface of the internationally certified land," and she reminded the DPP authorities not to turn into a situation of "man-made knife tricks, I am fish and meat," which will not benefit the people on the island.
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Xie Zhichuan also pointed out that the content of the US Senate and House of Representatives proposals is not the same, and it needs to be negotiated for a long time and reached an agreement before it can be signed by Biden, which is a very huge project and is not so easy to achieve. American politicians have tossed so hard, of course, not for Taiwan or Tsai Ing-wen, but to prepare for next year's MIDTERM elections in the United States.
Every midterm election in the United States is seen as a midterm exam for the current president. Although Biden's Current Democratic Party controls both houses by a narrow margin, based on past experience, for most of the time after the founding of the United States, the ruling party of successive presidents will lose or reduce the number of seats in the midterm elections, except in 1998 and 2002. Xie Zhichuan pointed out, "After the Biden administration withdrew its troops in Afghanistan this year, the Democratic Party faced huge pressure at home and urgently needed to quickly integrate the so-called 'alliance' to show that the international influence of the United States was not weakened under Biden's leadership, so the topic of the Rim of the Pacific Military Exercise was once again taken out to 'fight for elections'." ”
"Just like the 'Han Guang' exercise being carried out in Taiwan these days, although it is a nominal military exercise, everyone knows that this is a show of greater political significance than military significance, and it is just a matter of hyping up the topic every year, and the same is true of the Rim of the Pacific Military Exercise." Hsieh Chi-chuan pointed out: Using political consultation to coordinate cross-strait relations is most beneficial to Taiwan. However, the DPP prefers to go along with the United States and use military provocations to handle cross-strait issues, and if they are not careful, they may eventually bring about consequences that will lead to disaster.