Taliban's rapid victory embarrasses US, smashes image, arrogance

China respects Afghans' choice, urges Taliban to implement commitments

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Afghans' distrust of US reflects the fact that the entire world ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

A US soldier (center) points his gun at an Afghan passenger at Kabul airport on Monday as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the country. Photo: AFP

 

The Afghan Taliban have successfully returned to Kabul and are ready to set up a new government while the hasty US retreat, which had caused deaths to locals, makes the end of the 20-year-long war look increasingly embarrassing to the US..

` The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Afghanistan on Monday..

` Before the Security Council meeting, key US allies including the UK and France who fought the war with the US in the past two decades had expressed their disappointment and concerns, but China and Russia remain calm and cautious in observing the situation..

` Chinese analysts said to what extent the Taliban could win worldwide recognition depends on how it could implement its commitments, and the failure in Afghanistan could deeply damage the US image as a hegemon.. But the pullout from Afghanistan would make the US bolster its presence in other regions..

` Washington is still able to export chaos to other countries and regions with the excuse of "values, international orders or human rights" and people worldwide should learn from the current situation in Afghanistan, experts noted..

` China to be cautious.

` "China has noticed that the Afghan Taliban said yesterday the war was over, and they vowed to establish through negotiations an open and inclusive Islamic government, and to take responsible actions to ensure the safety of Afghan people and foreign diplomatic personnel," Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a Monday news conference. .

` Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Monday that "China needs to stay calm to observe the current situation, because the Taliban have gained an unexpected victory. This does not mean the Taliban have had overwhelming military power to ensure control, but the [Afghan] government's force has lost morale and given up.".

` The Taliban need to take political responsibility, but considering there are different forces within the Taliban, how to prevent the struggle for power and keep an internal balance, as well as satisfy local tribal forces would be the new challenges for the Taliban, and the risk of chaos still exists, Jin said..

` Pan Guang, a senior expert on counter-terrorism and Afghan studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that the possibility of a humanitarian crisis is there and if the Taliban failed to restore peace and order, the UN Security Council would have to consider sending UN peacekeeping troops into the region, not just to prevent the country becoming a breeding ground for terrorism, but also to conduct anti-drug missions and other humanitarian work. .

` "But this needs all five permanent members of the Security Council to be united," Pan noted..

` Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies in Lanzhou University, said the Afghan Taliban's success in Afghanistan is difficult to duplicate elsewhere, but some terrorist and extremist militia forces in the region, such as the Taliban Movement in Pakistan, as well as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and even ISIS in the Middle East, might believe that they would have the similar chance too..

` "China and Russia, as well as other partners in the region and under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, are paying attention to the situation to prevent the potential spillover and to strengthen border controls," he noted..

` Reactions from major powers.

` Russia was in contact with Taliban officials through its embassy in Kabul, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan said on Monday, a day after the Afghan government collapsed and the capital fell to the Taliban, Reuters reported..

` Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also pointed out that there has been no reaction from Washington to human rights violations in Kabul and the appeals of Afghan citizens for evacuation help at Kabul airport, TASS reported on Monday..

` The West shows a totally different image compared to those of China and Russia. "World leaders blame Biden, and express disappointment with Afghanistan." This is the headline of a report from Fox News on Monday, as it has listed the negative comments on the US failure from the leaders of some Western major countries, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. .

` Johnson told Sky News that it was "fair to say the US decision to pull out has accelerated things, but this has in many ways been a chronicle of an event foretold." He urged Western leaders to work together to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a "breeding ground for terrorism." French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to speak on Monday about the situation, while France also sent military aircraft to evacuate its nationals from the country..

` The different attitudes between the West and non-Western major powers prove that those who closely followed the US in the Afghan war have felt the pain and shared the US feeling of failure. But China and Russia, which didn't follow the military actions, could be more flexible to deal with the dramatic change, Zhu said..

` The Xinhua News Agency published on Monday a commentary entitled, "The 'fall of Kabul' rings the funeral bell of US hegemony." .

` The article said the US can simply leave but it has left Afghan people with endless pain. In the past 20 years, more than 30,000 civilians had been killed directly or indirectly by US forces, and more than 60,000 had been injured, with 11 million refugees. This proves that the US is the biggest exporter of chaos in the world, and its hegemony has caused too many tragedies. .

` Chinese experts said the end of the war in Afghanistan has deeply damaged the image of the US as a hegemon, and in the future, if the US decides to launch military actions elsewhere with the excuse of "democracy, values, human rights or rules-based order," very few countries would keep following it, or they would just send very few troops to reluctantly fulfill the relevant alliance treaty..

` "But when the US withdrew from Vietnam in 1970s, it pulled itself out of a mess, which gave it more resources to do more in other regions. So the US global influence remains powerful," Xiao He, an expert from the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday..

` Experts warned that Washington is still able to export chaos by force,, and the world still needs to stay alert, and learn from the current situation in Afghanistan..

` Source link` 

 

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China, economy tests for Taiwan presidential winner Tsai

Visitors look at souvenir plates bearing images of Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan on display for sale at a shop near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. Tsai Ying-wen's enjoys a broad mandate from her commanding victory in Taiwan's presidential election and her independence-leaning party's new legislative majority, but managing the island's delicate relations with China will be tricky. Already, Beijing has responded with statements following her Saturday night victory warning that it will not budge on its bottom line that Taiwan's leader must agree that the communist mainland and self-governing island democracy are part of a single Chinese nation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s presidential election victor Tsai Ying-wen will enjoy a broad mandate from her commanding victory and her independence-leaning party’s new legislative majority, but managing the island’s delicate relations with China will be tricky.

Already, Beijing warned following her Saturday night victory that it will not budge on its bottom line that Taiwan’s leader must agree that the communist mainland and self-governing island democracy are part of a single Chinese nation. The sides could be in for a lengthy wait as China assesses whether it feels it can trust Tsai.

“To handle cross-Taiwan Strait relations after Tsai’s election will be difficult, not just for Taiwan but also for mainland China,” said Huang Jing, a China expert at Singapore National University’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Tsai, who will be Taiwan’s first female president, won by 56 percent of the vote to 31 percent for her closest rival Eric Chu of the China-friendly Nationalist Party, which has held the presidency for the last eight years. Her Democratic Progressive Party won 68 of 113 parliamentary seats, giving it its first majority in the assembly long-dominated by the Nationalists.

“I wasn’t surprised a bit by the outcome. The Nationalists had to go. Now Tsai just needs to focus on the economy so I don’t expect she’ll do anything to rile up China,” Taipei tour bus driver Tan Kuang-jung said as a constant drizzle fell over the capital Sunday.

The reasons for the massive win were many.

Outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou had been growing increasingly unpopular among Taiwan’s 23 million people, largely due to perceptions that his push for closer economic ties with China was benefiting just a few and the futures of young Taiwanese who have seen wages stagnate and good full-time jobs harder to find.

Fearful of their original candidate’s poor reception among voters, the Nationalists dumped her in favor of Chu, but even he proved unable to raise their prospects. He resigned as party chairman immediately after Saturday’s defeat.

Newly politicized young people had coalesced in opposing yet another trade agreement with China and are believed to have voted heavily for the DPP.

A further backlash against the party’s pro-China stance was prompted by a viral video of 16-year-old Taiwanese entertainer Chou Tzu-yu bowing in apology for waiving the Taiwanese flag on television. Her apology was triggered by her South Korean management company’s fears that China would cancel appearances and endorsement deals.

“What happened surrounding Chou Tzu-yu, that whole controversy, made it almost a given (Tsai) would get over the 50 percent mark,” said Raymond Wu, managing director of Taipei-based political risk consultancy e-telligence.

“It’s an indication that someone would continue to bully Taiwan, at all different levels, even a 16-year-old who’s trying to make a name for herself in the entertainment field. This is something most Taiwanese find unacceptable,” Chou said.

The size of the win could also put additional pressure on Tsai and the DPP, said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who closely follows Taiwanese politics.

“When you do as well, as decisively as the DPP has done, there are no excuses” for failure, Diamond said.

While China had largely refrained on commenting about the election beforehand, its Taiwan Affairs Office responded swiftly to the result with a statement reiterating that it would deal only with those who agree that the “two sides of the strait belong to one China.”

That was followed by another statement from the Foreign Ministry stating that “China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no division. The result of the election in Taiwan will not change the basic fact and the consensus of the international community.”

“On such a major issue as safeguarding state sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Chinese government has rock-solid determination and never tolerates any separatist activities aiming at ‘Taiwan independence,’” said the statement, quoting ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, and split from the mainland amid the Chinese civil war in 1949, when leader Chiang Kai-shek moved his Nationalist government to the island.

Reflecting public opinion on Taiwan and mindful of U.S. and other countries’ concerns about cross-strait tensions, Tsai has pledged to maintain the status-quo of de-facto independence without taking steps that might provoke China. In her remarks Saturday, she referred to Taiwan by its formal name, the Republic of China.

However, unlike Ma, she has refused to endorse Beijing’s “one China principle” — although she hasn’t publicly repudiated it either — and told supporters Saturday night that she would work to strengthen Taiwan’s status abroad.

Deprived of formal diplomatic relations with the world’s major nations, Taiwan relies on its stable of 22 allies, mostly small, poor states in the Pacific, Africa and Central America and the Caribbean. Chinese pressure has barred Taiwan from the United Nations and Beijing strictly limits the island’s participation in other groups or requires it to participate only under the name Chinese Taipei.

Depending on how it interprets Tsai’s actions, Beijing could ratchet up the pressure by luring away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic allies or further shutting it out of international organizations. It could also seek to exact economic costs, possibly by limiting Chinese tourism to the island or reducing Taiwanese imports.

Far less likely is that it would resort to military intimidation despite its threat to invade if Taiwan opts for a formal declaration of independence. Although such tough talk plays well with the Chinese public, past attempts have backfired by generating even more support for pro-independence politicians.

Most probably, Beijing will observe what Tsai does and says before she takes office in May.

“I think the tough will get tougher and the soft will get softer. Certainly they’re going to see from now till inauguration what Tsai says and who she puts in key offices,” Wu said. - AP

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Taiwan chooses Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman, Tsai Ing-wen, not independence

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Tsai Ing-wen won by a landslide in Taiwan’s “presidential” elections on Saturday, and the DPP...

Taiwan chooses Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman, Tsai Ing-wen, not independence

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Tsai Ing-wen won by a landslide in Taiwan’s “presidential” elections on Saturday, and the DPP she leads captured the majority of seats in the Legislative Yuan, with the Kuomintang once again becoming an opposition party.

Since KMT’s defeat in Taiwan’s nine-in-one local elections in 2014, it’s expected that the DPP will assume power again. To win the election, Tsai made prudent remarks and took an ambiguous attitude toward cross-Straits policies in the past year. She kept stressing maintaining the status quo of cross-Straits ties.

By circumventing the sensitive cross-Straits issue, Tsai had clearly drawn a lesson from her defeat four years ago. When “Taiwan’s path” was discussed in the “presidential” campaign this time around, the focus was not whether the island should seek “independence,” but how to boost the island's economy, address social inequality, and guarantee the future of younger generations.

The vote is not a gauge of cross-Straits relations. The DPP’s victory doesn’t mean the majority of Taiwanese support Taiwan independence. Tsai and her party are aware of this, so in her victory speech, she was evasive about the current issues between Taiwan and the mainland, only scrupulously stating that she will be engaged in a “consistent, predictable and sustainable cross-Straits relations.”

The past eight years have seen greater progress for cross-Straits relations. Such progress, which is hard to be reversed, will provide some restraint on the DPP’s mainland policy. Besides, the mainland has an asymmetrical edge over Taiwan in political, military and economic terms. The mainland firmly holds the initiative in cross-Straits relations, making Taiwan independence a completely impossible scenario.

The KMT’s eight-year administration has made contributions to the current stage of cross-Straits relations, a performance that merits recognition both in Taiwan and the mainland. After this power shift, the DPP should assume the responsibility of serving the best interests of Taiwanese society, avoiding creating trouble for cross-Straits relations like it did as an opposition party. If the DPP abandons the progress made by its predecessor in the past eight years, it will jeopardize its future as a ruling party. The lesson of Chen Shui-bian should be a long-lasting lesson.

The mainland should be more prudent toward the power shift in Taiwan. No matter which party takes power, the mainland should maintain a policy calling for peaceful development between the mainland and Taiwan, while it cannot waver in opposing any form of pro-independence movement in Taiwan.

Tsai hasn’t publicly accepted the “1992 consensus,” which casts a cloud over cross-Straits official communications after she assumes office. The mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Saturday said that Beijing upholds the 1992 consensus and hasn’t shown any change toward Taiwan.

Regardless of its relationship with the mainland, it’s impossible for the DPP to reverse Taiwan’s stagnant economy. No matter what kind of political philosophy Tsai espouses, she has to face up to the reality. She should know she has limited options.

Tsai should keep in mind that if she revisits Chen’s dangerous path to cross the red line of cross-Straits relations, she will meet a dead end. We hope Tsai can lead the DPP out of the hallucinations of Taiwan independence, and contribute to the peaceful and common development between Taiwan and the mainland. - - Global Times

Tsai should prove sincerity about peace across Taiwan Straits

Now that the Democratic Progressive Party leader Tsai Ing-wen has won Taiwan's "presidential" election, she should waste no time to prove that she is sincere in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits. She should work to make people in Taiwan feel safe, instead of creating anxieties with her ambiguous mainland policy.

Tsai has played the card of "maintaining the status quo" during her election campaigns. But she has never made it clear how she would approach the 1992 Consensus.

As the cornerstone of cross-Straits relations, the consensus insists there is only one China, of which both the mainland and Taiwan are a part, though the meaning of "one China" is open to interpretation by both sides.

For a Taiwan leader, whether to accept the consensus or not decides which direction he or she would lead the island in: peace and stability, or conflicts and tension. The issue bears no ambiguity.

Thanks to the consensus, cross-Straits relations have developed smoothly over the past eight years. A slew of agreements have been signed to boost trade and tourism, bringing benefits to people on both sides. The two sides' top leaders met last November, for the first time since 1949.

All this has not come by easily, and should not be taken for granted. It requires efforts from both sides to make sure the momentum will not be interrupted by a leadership change, or derailed by any political missteps and misjudgment. After all, peaceful development of cross-Straits relations conforms to the interests of both Taiwan and the mainland.

Tsai has reportedly expressed wishes that both sides could work together for peace across the Taiwan Straits. If she means what she says, and accepts the 1992 Consensus, prospects for cross-Straits relations will remain promising.

The mainland has kept the door to dialogue open with the DPP so long as it accepts that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. The mainland has also taken a flexible approach when handling relations with the DPP. The channel of communication remains unblocked.

Many differences remain between the mainland and Taiwan, not only in lifestyle and social system, but also in how and when the two sides should be reunited. But under no circumstance should the differences be used as excuses to seek Taiwan independence, which means war, as the mainland's Anti-Secession Law suggests. The bottom line shall never be tested.

Any attempt to steer the island closer to independence will be a fool's errand. - China Daily