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Singapore’s Former U.N. Ambassador Talks Nationalism, Taiwan, and China-U.S. Relations
Kishore Mahbubani
China should carefully manage its rising nationalistic sentiment, particularly among young people, to help create a favorable environment for the country’s development and foreign relations, Singapore’s former United Nations ambassador said in a wide-ranging interview with Caixin.
Kishore Mahbubani, the city-state’s ambassador to the U.N. from 2001-2002, said that “nationalism is a natural consequence of countries becoming stronger and stronger.”
However, “it will be good for the Chinese government to manage this nationalism very carefully,” he said. “Nationalism can evolve into a big angry dragon and must never be seen as unmitigated good, so it’s better to restrain the dragon before it starts breathing fire.”
Countering China’s Intimidation of Taiwan
BY ROBERT S. WANG
On the first weekend following President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported back-to-back incursions by two large fleets of Chinese military aircraft into Taiwan’s self-declared southwestern air defense identification zone. On Jan. 23, the fleet comprised eight nuclear weapon–capable Chinese H-6K bomber planes, four J-16 fighter jets and one anti-submarine aircraft. This was followed the next day by another fleet of 12 fighters, two anti-submarine aircraft and a reconnaissance plane. Beijing repeated these exercises several times in the subsequent months.
Since the election of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, Beijing has markedly stepped up military pressure on Taipei. According to Taiwan, Beijing sent warplanes into the same area on at least 100 days in 2020. In January 2021, Chinese military planes flew into that zone 26 out of the first 30 days. Previously, such flights were usually conducted by one to three reconnaissance or anti-submarine warfare aircraft. According to Bernard Cole, a professor at the National War College, the latest incursions “demonstrate the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s ability to put together a multiplane strike, which we would likely see in the event of a hot war against Taiwan.” Additionally, Taiwan’s defense minister informed its legislature last October that nearly 50 Chinese aircraft had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait in the first nine months of 2020.
The most important form of preparation is in fact not military at all; it is, rather, to mitigate the developed world’s economic dependence on key commodities and components made in China.
An unofficial delegation is simultaneously visiting Taiwan drawing a sharp response from China.
In the first significant visit by an official of the Biden administration to China, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry arrived in Shanghai for talks with senior Chinese officials.
Mr. Kerry will meet China’s top climate official, Xie Zhenhua, and may also meet with other senior officials including Politburo member and top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The first visit from the new administration in Washington follows last month’s dialogue in Alaska, where officials from both sides traded barbs publicly in an unusual exchange played out in front of the cameras.