In the complex game being played by the major world powers in connection with the Taiwan issue, a remarkable event took place at the beginning of April this year, which attracted the attention of media around the world. This is about a tour of the PRC (or “Mainland China”) by former President Ma Ying-jeou accompanied by a certain Taiwanese youth group. Between May 2008 and May 2016 (i.e., two consecutive four-year terms), Ma Ying-jeou…

The Taiwan issue was last discussed in the NEO in the context of the increasingly visible presence of two new centres of influence emerging in the Indo-Pacific, namely India and Japan. The latter is particularly active there. However, the two major world powers, China and the United States, remain the main players in the games around Taiwan. And from the point of view of the former, everything that is somehow related to Taiwan concerns only China and no one else. Washington’s official position can be described by the formula “Yes, but…”, which has three main components…

The two leading world powers, the United States and the People’s Republic of China, are the main players in the games over Taiwan. At the same time, the presence of other recently emerging “power centres” is becoming increasingly visible. First of all, Japan and India. Of these, the former’s relations with Taiwan are now of an ordinary interstate nature. This is also true of Japan’s relations with its “big brother”, the United States…

A recent op-ed appearing in Foreign Affairs titled, “The Taiwan Catastrophe,” helps paint a clear picture of US motivations behind its growing confrontation with China and the increasingly unrealistic nature of Washington’s desired outcome. The premise of the op-ed is built on a now declassified top-secret memo by US General Douglas MacArthur in 1950 describing Taiwan as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” essential not to protect the continental United States, but to preserve US primacy over Asia-Pacific thousands of miles from US shores…

The election of a candidate from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which supports Taipei’s independence and closer ties with the United States, may result in increased tensions with Beijing. The situation regarding the conflict around Taiwan is becoming increasingly complex. On January 13 of this year, international experts were making preliminary forecasts for the general elections on the island and possible developments…

Taiwan is one of the states that are going to hold presidential elections on 13^th January 2024. Taiwan is one of the most contentious issues between China and the United States. The island was ruled by Japan for almost 50 years. However, it was handed over to the Chinese Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949. After Mao Zedong’s victory over the mainland, the Kuomintang, the Nationalists, relocated to the island. Since then, this island has been a matter of contention between China and the United States…

On 21 December of this year, the Chinese official publication Global Times, whose target audience is mainly abroad, published a remarkable article with the positions of representatives of Chinese academic science on the current state and prospects for the development of U.S.-China relations in the coming year. The extreme urgency of the issues raised in this publication is explained by the obvious fact that we are talking about the relations between the two main participants of the current stage of the “Big World Game”, which significantly determine the nature of the transformation…

The recent US-China summit received a lot of media attention precisely because of the extremely volatile nature of global politics, especially in the context of the ongoing conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Biden hailed the summit as a success, while China described it very positive. Military-to-military communications have resumed. But how much real progress towards a full-scale normalization was made, let alone achieving full-scale normalization?

US President Joe Biden has criticized Beijing over the Taiwan issue shortly before a visit to Washington by the Chinese foreign minister. The directness of the accusations which the US leader hurls at China, while continuing to express confidence in a restoration of constructive dialog with Beijing, never ceases to amaze. Another pearl among Joe Biden’s recent high-profile statements can be found in the joint written statement issued on October 26, following the bilateral talks between himself and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese concluded the previous day in the US capital…

At the end of July this year, US President Joe Biden announced the allocation of another package of military assistance to Taiwan in the amount of up to $345 million. Unlike previous deliveries, this tranche will become special – free of charge, through a special mechanism of the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA). Previously, the PDA format, which allows weapons to be shipped directly from the Pentagon’s warehouses without unnecessary approval from Congress and bureaucratic procedures, was used only for military…

The United States has announced a new weapons package for Taiwan worth up to 345 million USD. Reuters, in an article covering the package, would suggest it was aimed at providing Taiwan with “security assistance.” In reality, the transfer of weapons from the US to Taiwan is a violation of Chinese sovereignty under international law which recognizes Taiwan as an island province of China…

Despite US efforts, reciprocity between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will not decrease. On June 16, the traditional 15th Strait Forum opened in the Chinese city of Xiamen, opposite Taiwan. The event has no particular focus and is geared more toward encouraging contact and demonstrating that Chinese people are not so different on either side of the sea. It is worth noting that despite new rounds of confrontation between Beijing and Taipei continuing to unfold, about 5,000 Taiwanese showed up at the forum. About a thousand will come directly from the island, including representatives of the Kuomintang and other coalition parties. Such occurrences…