Time to support Taiwan and Japan

It is time to support Taiwan and Japan to regain normal nation status by Lionel Te-Chen Chiou 20/08/2021 lionel.cna.tw@gmail.com

After the Taliban has seized Kabul, China and Russia are going to impose more and bigger challenges to other democracies soon. Thus, the democracies must find "unity," UK House of Commons Member Sir Iain Duncan Smith appeals via an interview with the Sky News.

Smith's concern is legitimate. Particularly, China is using the opportunity to undermine the value of democracy and the US-led alliance, which consists of like-minded nations committed to the rule-based international order.

Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi blames the "democratic transformation" in Afghanistan as being unrealistic.

The CCP's mouthpiece the Global Times spearheads propaganda that claims the US will abandon Taiwan. 

Taiwan is the frontline which the CCP is desperate to seize. Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has pointed out that if the democracies stand idly allowing China to annex Taiwan, that would be the end of the Pax Americana.

China's other neighbour Japan has also been under the CCP's threats. Hayley Channer, a senior policy fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, has pointed out that "Japan is the most important Indo-Pacific security partner for the democracies, particularly Australia and the US."

To find "unity" and prevent the democracies' alliance being dismantled, it is time to support Taiwan and Japan to regain normal nation status. While China seems willing to acknowledge the Taliban regime, the democracies seem unable to do anything to reverse the fall of a free country.

In times like this the democratic allies need to make moves that vigorously improve their solidarity and send a strong signal that democratic values will be upheld. To recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation and help Japan regain defence normalcy are necessary components of this.

The CCP knows Taiwan's significance to the democracies. That is why it bothers to try a divide and conquer approach, using the 'Afghanistan today, Taiwan tomorrow' rhetoric, to imply the incompetence and disloyalty of the US led alliance.

The CCP's goal is to split the alliance of Taiwan and the democracies by inspiring doubt, regardless if it is legitimate or not. To eliminate the doubt, the democracies should demonstrate their commitment and unite by supporting Taiwan and Japan regaining normal nation status.

By doing that, it will send a strong signal that the democracies are determined to stand by like-minded countries.

An historical analogy which should not be overlooked is the campaign of Five States' Multilateral Recognition (Wu Guo Xiang Wang, or Xi Shou Li Wu Wang) during the Warring States period (Zhan Guo Shi Dai) in ancient China .

Before China was unified for the first time by Qin's expansionism in the 3rd Centuries BC, there were dozens of states across the territory of modern China. How to team up against Qin's expansion was a question that puzzled strategists across centuries during the Warring States period.

Although the Six States (Wei, Han, Yan, Zhao, Qi, Chu) had teamed up against Qin and signed a treaty to form an alliance in 333 BC, it took one year only for Qin to plant enough doubts among the Six States to dismantle the alliance. Qin won a battle against Wei soon after that.

No state helped Wei. However even though the Six States were not loyal to the Alliance, they were aware that they actually needed it to survive the Qin's expansionism because not a single state could by itself deal with the Qin's mighty military threat.

They badly needed a breakthrough to revive the alliance.

Eventually, Gong Sun Yan (aka Xi Shou), one of the best strategists of all time in Chinese history, launched the international campaign Five States' Multilateral Recognition to eliminate the doubt among states and improve solidarity.

In the campaign, Gong Sun Yan persuaded the leaders of five states (Wei, Han, Yan, Zhao, and Zhongshan) to mutually recognise each other's kingship status. He managed to achieve some success because the five states' leaders were hardly willing to lose their kingship status to be downgraded to lords again. They shared a sense of reality which trumped their doubts about each other.

Today's situation in the Indo-Pacific under the increasing threats from China resembles the confrontation between Qin and the other states during the Warring States period.

Taiwan and Japan are critical first island chain countries on the frontline facing China's outward expansionism.

The Five States' Multilateral Recognition campaign 24 centuries ago has left a playbook for the democracies to scrutinise and evaluate.

The democracies need an urgent public debate to determine whether to find unity by recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation and helping Japan regain defence normalcy.