Global Asia - September 2022

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It didn’t take long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 for some to speculate whether China might take a page from Vladimir Putin’s playbook and seize the opportunity to take Taiwan by force. Conspiracy theorists only had to point to a key meeting between Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing before the opening of the Winter Olympics, only weeks before Russia’s invasion. The two leaders, who share a deeply felt distain for Washington’s dominance of the international order, declared after their meeting a “no limits” friendship between Moscow and Beijing. But, as the authors of the introduction to this cover package of Global Asia write: “Facile comparisons make bad policy: China is not Russia and Taiwan is not Ukraine.”
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in early August sparked a furious response from Beijing, which conducted its most extensive military exercises ever around the island, refocusing global attention on the potential catastrophe that would unfold if China were to attempt a forcible move on Taiwan. We may have landed in a “Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis,” the authors of our introduction say. “The debate on this characterization is only beginning, but there is a consensus that tensions in the Taiwan Strait have not been this high since the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1995-1996.”
In this cover package, we have assembled a range of views on a possible military contingency in the Taiwan Strait. It is sobering reading. Included are perspectives on the positions of China, Taiwan and the United States — the central players if a conflict were to break out. A series of further essays takes account of the broader regional positions, including those of Japan, South Korea, Australia, Southeast Asia and the European Union. Finally, we look at the military elements that would be involved in a possible defense of Taiwan, the enormous economic costs of a conflict and the prospect that this might itself constrain such a possibility...

Global Asia Magazine Description:

Global Asia is a quarterly publication of the East Asia Foundation. The foundation, established in Seoul in January 2005, strives to promote peace, prosperity, security and sustainability in East Asia by creating an open and creative forum for the exchange of ideas on regional co-operation and integration, among other goals.
The mission we have set for ourselves with Global Asia is both bold and urgent: It is to provide a compelling, serious, and responsible forum for distinguished thinkers, policymakers, political leaders and business people to debate the most important issues in Asia today.
Global Asia is not a journal with a fixed point of view, or a particular agenda. Our aim is to give voice to the global dimension of what is happening in Asia. In our pages and on our web site, we aim for Asia to speak to the world, and the world to Asia. That is important at a time when this region is playing an ever greater role in world affairs.
There are other fine publications on international affairs. What sets us apart is our focus: Asia. We believe that the world is moving into “the Age of Asia,” to borrow a phrase from one of the articles in the inaugural issue of Global Asia in September 2006. This transformation is not going to occur overnight, but it has already begun.
The region’s dynamic economic growth, stable and accountable political systems, maturing democracies, and evolving sense of community are giving Asia greater weight in the world. These developments will have enormous implications for governments, businesses, societies and individuals across the globe. How that transformation is viewed, and shaped, from within Asia and how it is perceived outside Asia is an essential part of the story we have to tell.
The forces of globalization are having a profound impact throughout the world. And they are being influenced and channeled in different ways in different parts of the world. Ours is the story of Asia’s experience with globalization, and the ideas and debates influencing it. In pursuing our mission, we aim to play a part, however modest, in helping to shape the future of Asia.