Obama and the Next 4 Years for Taiwan

I haven’t quite located Obama’s ideas on Taiwan, which will change as time progresses.

What are the facts on his perspectives on Taiwan? Including those of his closest advisors and advisor/s on Taiwan?

Biden supports the current States Dept One China Policy.

Well, Obama will obviously have to follow the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) in addition to the communiques with PRC.

The real question is how will he implement his policies in regards to USG requirements. He has a lot of latitude and can exercise between the extremes. His Asia, China, and Taiwan policy advisors will be heavily influential.

So understanding their perspectives, and strenght of their personalities, will probably give an advance understanding of the next 4 years.

A while ago…and I mean a long time ago, there was an interview with Biden where a reporter asks him at a convention on his attitude towards Taiwan, and he turns his head around and said aloud “Would anyone here endanger the lives of their sons/daughters for Taiwan?”

He also has a friend/associate that he’s known for a while that is from China. Not sure if person is some sort of advisor to him or what.
As AC_dropout stated, he is 100% for the one-china policy and having him as VP is very bad for Taiwan. However, Obama supports the status quo and will probably honor the Taiwan relations act in regards to selling Taiwan weapons, but less likely to send in American soldiers to help Taiwan.
With that said, Taiwan may be on its own for the next 4 years, and maybe it is fate, but the people of Taiwan was fortunate to have a China friendly government for the next 4 years. Because should a war breakout, the US won’t be coming to our aid.

On a personal note: I welcome the new economic agreement and talks, but taking down the flags and attempting to censor the protestors are a huge violation to the peoples civil rights and may cause unrest within the country if this keeps up. I feel like the president should really address the public, otherwise it would seem like the people doesn’t have a say in the government.

Good comments lincoln unit.

What we see is someone who will not be weak and wishy-washy but will be strong and smart in their policies to include their policy for Taiwan. Whatever his policy is, and how it is portrayed, it will be a policy that supports and ensure Taiwan continues to have a strong position from which to bargain.

Trying to mobilize DPP TI supporters to Cause a disturbance is not anyone’s civil rights.

As this continues I would not be surprise if support for the DPP fall as they lose more elected offices to the KMT. Who wants people who behave in this manner to be their political leader.

As for the US, does anyone believe that Obama, is going to sympathize with low class ethnic majority, BSR, using violence and mob mentality against the ethnic minority, WSR, outside of the peaceful political process that exist on Taiwan.

Your kidding me right?

Uhhm. Obama. Half-black Kenyan. Raised by mother whom never married. Some schooling in Indonesia. Community organizer around Chicago Now President-elect of the US. “Sympathize with low class ethnic majority”

I suspect there are some wires loose there buddy.

CNN said that about 96% of the African-American voted Obama. And about 65+% of the Latin-Americans voted Obama… And that about 36% of the White voted Obama…

Oh gosh, he won because of the “low class ethnic majority”???

So if you get almost all the black vote and most of the latino vote you will be the next President? Obamas got a lot on his plate right now with domestic issues. I suspect he hasnt really given a lot of thought to Taiwan as yet. Probably happy to keep things humming the way they are. China has already offered its advice apparently.

I agree with tommy. Obama won’t give the least bit of thought to Taiwan – nor should he. He will have his hands abundantly full trying to deal with all the humongous messes left by his predecessor. Taiwan is a tiny, insignificant speck compared to global recession, war in iraq and all the major issues he must face (although when confronted by Taiwan questions I expect he’ll respond reasonably).

And, I’m not sure why people (my colleagues, my wife’s friends, etc.) have been asking about Obama’s stance on Taiwan anyway. Who gives a damn about the US stance? Isn’t Taiwan’s stance infinitely more important? Heck, they just invited that big Chinese dude over and signed a bunch of papers. What difference does US stance make compared to the tremendous importance of what Taiwan itself does and says?

Grow some balls Taiwan. Quit whining about the US and other allies and pull yourself up by your own damn bootstraps.

The Chinese certainly seem very happy he’s President. They’ve even asked him to stop selling arms to Taiwan an oppose Taiwanese independence.

They seem confident they will get their way too

taipeitimes.com/News/world/a … 2003428008

[quote=“PRC foreign ministry spokesman”]“We urge the United States to honor its commitment … honor the one China policy and stop selling weapons to Taiwan,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said when asked to comment on US-China relations after Obama’s election win.

“Judging from the development of bilateral relations in the past years, the Taiwan issue is the most sensitive issue,” he said.

“We hope the US will properly handle this issue, adhere to the three communiques, adhere to the one-China principle and oppose Taiwan independence, so that our relations will develop in a smooth and stable way,” Qin said.[/quote]

And here’s Joe Biden on Taiwan

Its too bad Taiwan cant just take its ball and go home or play in another schoolyard.

Taiwan is stuck with the big bad bear (China) on its doorsteps and the mentally absent Uncle Sam to look out for it.

Now if China was just the size of Taiwan, then lets go for it and have a tussle and settle this shit !!

[quote=“tommy525”]Its too bad Taiwan cant just take its ball and go home or play in another schoolyard.

Taiwan is stuck with the big bad bear (China) on its doorsteps and the mentally absent Uncle Sam to look out for it.

Now if China was just the size of Taiwan, then lets go for it and have a tussle and settle this shit !![/quote]
Shrink rays. Shrink rays would solve that problem.

[quote=“KingZog”][quote=“tommy525”]Its too bad Taiwan cant just take its ball and go home or play in another schoolyard.

Taiwan is stuck with the big bad bear (China) on its doorsteps and the mentally absent Uncle Sam to look out for it.

Now if China was just the size of Taiwan, then lets go for it and have a tussle and settle this shit !![/quote]
Shrink rays. Shrink rays would solve that problem.[/quote]
Friggin Sharks with Lasers attached. How many times to I have to say it?

hear hear!.. :bravo:
Taiwan’s attitude of presumptuous, whining, entitlement that other countries should fight it’s battles is nauseating… I would totally support an independent Taiwan, if they stood up and fought for it like every other nation that achieved sovereignty the old fashioned way… I wonder how many of the gung-ho protesters currently vandalizing the streets of Taipei would actually put their money where their binlang is and go to war for Taiwan… I’m guessing 1 in 1000 if that…

I like the idea, but unless the PLA decides to swim over during the invasion the sharks are likely to be of limited military efficacy… :laughing:

hear hear!.. :bravo:
Taiwan’s attitude of presumptuous, whining, entitlement that other countries should fight it’s battles is nauseating… I would totally support an independent Taiwan, if they stood up and fought for it like every other nation that achieved sovereignty the old fashioned way… I wonder how many of the gung-ho protesters currently vandalizing the streets of Taipei would actually put their money where their binlang is and go to war for Taiwan… I’m guessing 1 in 1000 if that…

I like the idea, but unless the PLA decides to swim over during the invasion the sharks are likely to be of limited military efficacy… :laughing:[/quote]

No, those binlangers will be on the last cross straits flights to the only place safe…China.

Plasma: they cut holes in the boats, right?

hell, even plasma cutters rather than lasers would work. but lasers could get the missiles flying over too.

[quote=“urodacus”]Plasma: they cut holes in the boats, right?

hell, even plasma cutters rather than lasers would work. but lasers could get the missiles flying over too.[/quote]
They have these

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsiung_Feng_III

From what I can tell supersonic cruise missiles would make even the US Navy a bit wary, so a bunch of conscripts in barges and clones of Russian ‘monkey model’ export destroyers probably should be even more so.

Unfortunately should might be the operative word since the mainlanders are so convinced that they are The Best.

:doh:… you’re right… I forgot that shark technology has come a long way since The Spy Who Loved Me…

the question is does Taiwan have 7,024,000 of these brave-wind-laser-cutter-missile-sharks?..

I’ve got a suspicion that even if they were throwing rocks the Taiwanese would run out of ammo before a PLA invasion ran out of targets for them to chuck 'em at…

Kingzong, where did you get that Biden quote.

I think the bigger question shouldn’t be what will the Obama administration do regarding Taiwan. It should be, will Taiwan be an important enough issue to get Congress’s attention. The arms sale that recently went through didn’t happen until some influential congressmen starting putting pressure on the Bush administration. If The Congress wants to dictate policy towards Taiwan, they are more than able to.

What would likely happen if there were conflict across the strait would depend on the conflict. Anything short of direct invasion I think the US, under any President or Congress, wouldn’t do much than the obligatory denunciations. If China invaded, however, I think it’s pretty fair to assume that The US, and probably most of the rest of the world, would just stop trading with the Chinese. The economic loss would be too much for the Communist Party to bear.