Taiwan Church News
3404 Edition
22 – 28 May, 2017
Topical News

Yates And Nakashima Invited To Speak In Taiwan National Affiars Conference

Reported by Lin Yi-yin

On May 21, a year after the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen, a National Affairs Conference organized by World Taiwanese Congress and Taiwan Nation Alliance was held at the GIS NTU Convention Center in Taipei.

Mr Stephen J. Yates, a would-be running candidate for Lt. Governor of Iowa State of USA, and Mr AkihisaNakashima, a member of the House of the Representative and former Vice Minister of Defense of Japan, were both specially invited to deliver their thoughts and exchange with Taiwan academics and youths.

“There are many common foundations between Taiwan and USA in the fields of country experiences, moral sense, interests, and security”, Yates stressed, “If Taiwan wants to break the blockade of China and develop her own international spaces, formal diplomacy between states should not be the priorities. Instead, more frequent civic contacts among mutual countries require to be build up first!”

Nakashima reminded the audience about China’s ambitious tactics through “interiorizing” the South China Sea and financially supporting some ASEAN countries in order to stop the containment policy of USA through the first island chain. He thought Obama’s policy toward Asia-Pacific security was proved to be weakened, but Trump’s stance on “bargaining diplomacy” also made Asian countries quite wary.

Translated by Peter Wolfe