On 26 January 2024, the Global Governance Programme organised a debate about the right balance of threats and assurances as a means to deter Beijing, with the purpose to exchange views on Taiwan’s security and its global dimensions. Experts from Academia Sinica, which is considered Taiwan’s national academic institution, EUI and LUISS University discussed Taiwanese views of US credibility and security commitments, but also how the 'status quo' across the Taiwan strait is defined. They presented evidence from the 'American portrait' project - the annual survey conducted by the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica and administered by the Election Studies Center at National Chengchi.
According to the survey, US credibility in Taiwan has seen a substantial decline, affecting the Taiwanese view of international relationships and security. Discussions also revolved around the US policy on Taiwan's sovereignty, emphasising the complexity of the 'no position' stance and its implications for the Taiwan Strait status. The survey results indicated a decrease in perceived credibility of both the US and China among Taiwanese citizens.
In his talk, Wen-Chin Wu, Associate Research Fellow at Academia Sinica, underscored the growing Taiwanese scepticism towards US credibility and its security commitments and revealed that democracy and reassurance are crucial for maintaining US credibility.
The session highlighted that in the context of the Taiwan Strait, where the peacefully established status is a common interest of the international community, gray-zone activities, threat or use of force against this status, constitute international wrongful acts. The global community, it was affirmed, bears both the right and obligation to uphold freedom of navigation in the strait, firmly opposing China's claims of territorial waters and reinforcing the principles of international law.
You can revisit highlights from the workshop on our Twitter feed.