12/20(Tue) Trump: Beneficial or Dangerous for Taiwan?

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tashi
Member
文章: 148
註冊時間: 週二 11月 03, 2015 11:07 pm

12/20(Tue) Trump: Beneficial or Dangerous for Taiwan?

文章 tashi »

Hi All,

Dan Balaban this time is going to bring us his insightful opinion about their next president Trump and since it's related to his policy about Taiwan, we could also treat it as a good chance to sharpen our English skill, express our opinion.


Trump: Beneficial or Dangerous for Taiwan?

On Dec. 2, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump took a congratulatory call from Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, breaking decades of diplomatic practice. Later, Mr. Trump said on a U.S. news show: “I fully understand the One China policy, but I don't know why we have to be bound by a One China policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”

Let’s discuss the implications of this and the Trump’s presidency on Taiwan and cross-straight issues. (See suggested reading material below).

We’ll use the following questions for discussion, though the discussion can go beyond these questions:

1. Do you think Donald Trump will change the One China policy and strengthen U.S. support for Taiwan or is he just planning to use Taiwan as a bargaining chip to extract economic concessions from China, after which he would abandon Taiwan?

2. If Mr. Trump shakes up the relationship between the U.S. and China, including slapping high tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S. and taking action against Chinese currency manipulation, is that a good thing for Taiwan or a bad thing?

3. Should Taiwanese leaders put their trust in Mr. Trump and seek a closer relationship with him and the U.S. or is that too risky, given his unpredictability and China’s likely unfavorable reaction to closer ties between Taiwan and the U.S.?

4. Should Taiwan do more to provide for its own defense, not relying on the U.S. as much?

5. Overall, is the election of Donald Trump a good thing or bad thing for Taiwan?

6. Why do you think Mr. Trump got so many votes, even with all of his negative traits—his demeaning statements about women, his harsh statements about immigrants and minorities, his perceived conflicts of interest in business and with Russia, etc. Is this part of a global trend by voters seeking change? Might we see it here in Taiwan?


Optional reading:

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-38285361

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democrac ... -relations

http://www.vox.com/world/2016/12/12/139 ... -one-china

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... es-hopes-/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-13/s ... cy/8115594

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ina-policy

**************************************************************************************
Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:50 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 9:05pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:05 ~ 9:25pm Summarization (20 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements
**************************************************************************************************************************************************

Remark:
1. To new friends/visitors, please prepare one to three mins of self-introduction.
2. To achieve good discussion experience and quality, please read through all content, questions and think about them in advance.
3. If you are interested in joining our regular meetings, currently the membership fee is NTD$1000 and it's basically a lifelong payment.
Luis Ko
YOYO member
文章: 970
註冊時間: 週三 6月 06, 2007 10:18 pm

Re: 12/20(Tue) Trump: Beneficial or Dangerous for Taiwan?

文章 Luis Ko »

the election of Trump and the call will finally be good or bad for Taiwan still remains to be seen but, the call has already had some ripple effects so far, some of them are the series reactions of China after the call from which it seems not that good for Taiwan. on the other hand, i haven't seen any good thing happen from the call yet. and we might also have to buy more stuff that we don't really want from America because of the call in the future. i don't like it. further more, i don't like the government attitude pretending there's no one China policy. they know there is. they know if they break it, it doesn't matter if it's broken by Trump, China will definitely take serious action. if Obama knows it, "China will not treat that the way they will treat other issues. China will not even treat it the way they treated issues around South China Sea.", there's no reason Tsai doesn't know it.

obviously Obama is warning Trump how serious the consequence will be if he breaks the one China policy. when it comes to the consequence, i really want to know how many people believe the USA will take on the war with China simply because of Taiwan issue?? even the America wants to take on it, how many people in Taiwan want to, because of an ideological concept??

Republic of China or Taiwan is just an ideological concept. and like it or not, we were born under the law of Republic of China, and we are R.O.C. nationals. what i don't like the most is some people in Taiwan, under the nation of Republic of China, try to destroy the country, to change the country's name or what, and then once it incurs a war waged by China, they will call for all the people in Taiwan to unite together fighting with them, under the name of Republic of China. it's really ridiculous.

it's said Taiwan is a democratic country, especially those who pro Taiwan's independence. if so, they should respect those people who pro R.O.C. as well, guess there are a lot of people just like me we don't like war, but we are willing to fight for R.O.C., for R.O.C. only. we don't want to go to war for "the nation of Taiwan" or Taiwan's independence and then, in the end even if we win, our R.O.C. will still be destroyed. i don't want to fight for some people, for them to destroy my country later. it's absolutely ridiculous, isn't it?

ok, i admit i just don't want to experience a war. i just don't want to fight for this such ideological concept, neither for R.O.C. or for Taiwan.. XD

by the way, if Republic of China can't be recognized by international community, join the UN or what, there's no reason the name Taiwan can be feasible. since it's never been a name issue. it's a political issue. there's a story that a person who encourages others to cover a sticker of "the nation of Taiwan" on their passport, and says it will still be workable to get into any other country. but when once he went to WHO event, journalists asked him to show it and he dared not to, and only chose to shun the question. so, for those who advocate it, don't lie to people, and don't lie to yourself either la~ i would say haa 8)
i might be a cynic and, a sceptic as well but, i'm definitely not a bad person!!
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