Strengthening ties with Taiwan need not upset Beijing
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will touch down in China on Saturday for a historic seven-day visit. While dialogue and mutually beneficial co-operation are important, Australians know successful engagement requires an understanding that China’s political system prioritises state power over all else. Under Xi Jinping’s rule, the past 13 years have seen a dramatic transformation in China’s strategic posture and military ambitions.
Xi’s China has militarised the South China Sea in defiance of international law. It has imposed its will on Hong Kong, undercutting its long-agreed autonomy. It has weaponised trade and levied punitive trade sanctions on Taiwan’s agricultural products, as well as Australian wine, beef, barley and coal. China has become more openly aggressive in the Taiwan Strait, increasing both the frequency and intensity of its military threats and grey-zone activities. These actions continue: last Monday China unilaterally activated a west-to-east flight path, challenging Taiwan’s situation awareness and betraying a decade-long commitment to consult on such moves. This has further heightened regional tensions.
Engaging with the Australian public through the lens of China always seems to me to do a disservice to the important story my country of Taiwan is writing. Taiwan is a world-class maritime trading power with a sophisticated economy and cutting-edge tech sector. The island has an exemplary track record of meeting international trade obligations. It’s perfectly positioned to meet the high standards required by agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.
During his post-election visit to Indonesia, the Prime Minister offered support for Jakarta’s CPTPP application. This is welcomed because “trade liberalisation serves the collective good”, as former DFAT secretary Peter Varghese has written for the Lowy Institute. Geopolitics, not economic and trade merit, appears to be determining the queue, given Taiwan’s CPTPP application was lodged in September 2021. It’s time to put prosperity over politics and move Taiwan’s CPTPP application forward. As CPTPP chair this year, Australia has the chance to focus on real economic opportunity, which helps fulfil the potential of this gold-standard agreement.
Taiwan’s true muscle is witnessed daily in our humming semiconductor fabs, which produce 90 per cent of the world’s most advanced chips, essential for a huge range of applications that power our daily life and fuel our ambitions. Few realise these facilities will soon consume more than 12 per cent of Taiwan’s electricity – largely from gas-fired power plants fuelled by Australian LNG – underlining the critical energy relationship between our economies.
Taiwan is a natural partner for the Albanese government’s economic agenda. Our semiconductor expertise can play a substantial role in supporting the Future Made in Australia vision, from critical minerals processing to advanced manufacturing. Our AI leadership spans chip design to responsible development frameworks. While others seek to dominate, Taiwan partners.
Taiwan’s experience with Australia’s partners offers a gentle road map for the opportunities we might seize together. Our relationship with the EU is deepening by the week. Taiwan’s 2013 trade agreement with New Zealand has quietly doubled bilateral trade in a decade. Canada’s 2023 investment accord is already steering capital toward clean-tech ventures. The UK has shown how three swift memorandums – on digital trade, investment and net zero – can sit comfortably within longstanding “One China Policy” settings.
These agreements work because they focus on merit, standards and mutual gain. They are designed around shared strengths. Each was concluded quietly, via representative offices such as the one I lead, demonstrating constructive deals need not jeopardise broader relations with Beijing. Exploring such tailored arrangements between Australia and Taiwan would not influence the relationship between Australia and China. Instead, given the fragmentation of the trading system, it would provide legal scaffolding for businesses and investors to fully grasp opportunities in both economies. It would offer a practical, forward-looking agenda that goes beyond our current 1996 double taxation treaty.
At the start of his term, Xi spoke of supporting Taiwan’s “peaceful development”; 13 years on, Beijing’s war colleges publish playbooks for invading and occupying my country. We deeply appreciate Australia’s consistent calls for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and hope this vital principle will be underscored over the next few days.
I ask the Prime Minister to reflect on what is unfolding across the Taiwan Strait: 23 million patriotic Taiwanese are rehearsing for a full-scale invasion, with drills designed to gauge how fast they can pivot from weekday routine to wartime survival. Air raid sirens will blare. Every airport, seaport, metro line and bus service will grind to a halt. Shops will shut. Officials will herd people into shelters. Taiwan stands ready to deepen our partnership with Australia. With global trade policy uncertainty at a 50-year high, Taiwan offers collaboration and innovation anchored in an open, rules-based trading order where no country shall coerce or dominate another.
Douglas Hsu is Taiwan’s chief representative in Australia.
More Coverage
Packed government bench seeks an effective agenda
The August productivity roundtable has potential to open the way to greater prosperity. After much neo-Keynesian government intervention, redistribution and regulation in Labor’s first term, some supply-side thinking would enhance our future.
Japanese election harms region
‘Japan First’ isolationism is on the march, just as the country’s role in helping deter China in the East and South China seas has never been as important.