“Japanese and Taiwanese coast guards hold first joint drill,” The Japan Times

Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms

“Japanese and Taiwanese coast guards hold first joint drill,”  The Japan Times. Geostrategery, Taiwan Republic 台灣国, and world history classrooms. Multilateralism is difficult work. Most challenging for democracies, successful multilateralism does not translate into votes. There is a long history of American citizens voting out the geostrategery-foreign policy competent presidents – George Herbert Walker Bush is the most recent example. President Tsai’s eight years illustrate the clear and present threat to Taiwan’s democratic sovereignty posed by Chinese communists. Had democratic Taiwan had a more peaceful, civilized neighbor, foreign policy-focused President Tsai’s electoral fortunes might have been different. The collaboration between Japanese and Taiwanese Coast Guards – official and in public – is a good first step. This report should be linked with recent reports of joint Taiwanese and American naval drills, as well as the collaboration between the US and Taiwan Coast Guards – also in public and official. Can one’s official Coast Guard collaborate with Taiwan’s official Coast Guard without de facto recognizing the officialness of Taiwan’s democratically elected national government? And so when America, Japan, and the Free World ritually speak of their “unofficial” ties to Taiwan, well, action speaks louder than words.

These multilateral geostrategery cooperations in the Indo-Pacific are important because Chinese communists are using their paramilitary forces to extend Chinese imperialism in the South Sea, Taiwan Strait, and the East Sea. While this Chinese belligerence has been categorized by some as “gray-zone” tactics, I am not sure how ‘gray’ this gray zone is in that as with the Coast Guards of the Free World, the Chinese communist maritime paramilitary forces are essentially another branch of their military. Great credit to President Tsai and her liberal hawks for investing in the Taiwan Coast Guard – better, newer ships, multilateral cooperation, and as illustrated above, Taiwan Coast Guard ships capable of firing long-range anti-ship missiles during a Chinese invasion.

For the American-led democratic multilateralisms – the Coast Guards appear slightly less “escalatory” than the navies (although again, I am skeptical of this slow dance ….) The best news is that for the Coast Guards of Korea, Japan, the US, Taiwan Republic, Australia, and the Philippines to collaborate, it means ongoing strategic and operational dialogue exists between the national security officials of these democratic nations. If this is correct, then this is a great breakthrough and the Biden liberal hawks should be given credit. It also means that without future disruptions, the logical next step is collaboration between different branches of the military of these democratic nations in the Indo-Pacific region. This year these collaborations with Taiwan exist just on the edge of RIMPAC and other US-led Indo-Pacific military drills – soon Taiwan’s military should be integrated into these trainings.

This is why I have written previously: the greatest threat to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and the world has to do with the self-inflicted mess in Washington, DC. Erratic, authoritarian-friendly American isolationism – as it did in the 1930s – is a necessary precondition for another world war. Nor would those within the American center-left who still believe in “dialogue and engagement” with the Chinese communists lead to a better, more peaceful result. 20.7.2024

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