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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》Chinese tactics risk new ‘status quo,’ official says
From front row, fifth left, National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Lii Wen, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling and US Senator Tammy Duckworth pose for a photograph alongside other officials at the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Liu Pei-de, Taipei Times
‘NEW NORMAL’: Taipei, Tokyo and Manila face the ‘same pattern’ of maritime actions, Kuan Bi-ling said, adding that shipping routes might be affected by them
Staff writer, with Reuters and AFP
China’s gradually increasing pressure tactics risk creating an entirely new “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, which the international community might not realize until it is too late, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling （管碧玲） told the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei yesterday.
Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines face the “same pattern of actions” that are “deliberately controlled to remain below the threshold of conventional warfare,” Kuan said.
The greatest danger of such “gray zone” activities is that as they gradually step up, the “status quo” risks being changed almost without notice, she said.
“Each individual action might not appear to trigger an international crisis. Each escalation of pressure might still be judged as not constituting war, but when a series of actions accumulate, it might create an entirely new status quo,” she said.
China not only sends its military into the skies and waters around the nation on a daily basis, but also uses other “gray zone” tactics that stop short of outright conflict to target Taipei.
That includes regular coast guard patrols off Taiwan’s east coast, angering Taipei, which says China has no right to claim maritime jurisdiction there.
Chinese ships also regularly ply the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to assert Beijing’s maritime claims over disputed waters and islands.
Kuan said that China’s increasing pressure might lead to shipping routes being adjusted, insurance companies recalculating risk and personnel on the front lines bearing greater pressure.
“The international community, through repeated judgements that each incident is ‘not yet a crisis,’ might gradually become accustomed to things that should never be regarded as normal,” she said.
“In the end, we might suddenly discover that no decisive war ever occurred on any particular day, yet the original status quo no longer exists,” she added.
National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Lii Wen （李問） told the forum that China’s “authoritarian expansionism” in regional waters would persist if the world fails to act.
China is “constantly pushing the limits through an incremental salami-slicing approach, Lii said.
China’s “authoritarian expansionism” involves the use of military, coast guard, research and maritime militia vessels to press its claims and attempt to “transform international waterways into internal waters,” he said.
“If the world fails to voice our concerns or take action, this expansionism will only continue,” he said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China blames Taiwan for the tensions, in particular President William Lai （賴清德）.
Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
Last month, the US, Britain, France and Germany expressed concern about new China Coast Guard patrols off Taiwan’s east coast.
Also attending the forum that Kuan spoke at was US Senator Tammy Duckworth, the first US senator to visit Taiwan since US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping （習近平） in Beijing in May.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
A photograph released yesterday shows a Coast Guard Administration patrol vessel, right, sailing near a China Coast Guard ship in waters south of Kinmen County. Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch
