Quad must engage with Taiwan, says Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison has called for Australia to update its ‘One China’ policy to strengthen security ties with Taiwan – including through the Quad – in response to rising aggression from Beijing.

Scott Morrison addresses the Yushan forum in Taipei on Wednesday.

Scott Morrison has called for Australia to update its “One China” policy to strengthen security ties with Taiwan – including through the Quad – in response to rising aggression from Beijing that threatens to upend the inter­national order.

In an address in Taipei on Wednesday evening, the former prime minister said “no other place on the planet” was more central to “ the cause of liberty and democracy” than Taiwan.

“When my government took the decision for Australia to swiftly provide lethal support to assist Ukraine … this was as much a decision to support Ukraine, as it was to demonstrate our alignment with a global Western resolve to resist the aggression of authoritarianism, especially given the tacit endorsement of the invasion by Beijing. I was as concerned about Beijing as I was about Moscow.”

Mr Morrison said Australian and other liberal democracies needed to push back on Xi Jinping’s claims over Taiwan: “One can reasonably ask, if Taiwan, then what and who is next?”

He said a conflict in Taiwan would cause a “severe global economic depression” and “if the PRC were to forcefully occupy Taiwan, this would enable the PRC to project well beyond the first island chain, radically altering the security environment within the Indo-Pacific.”

Since Gough Whitlam switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1972, Australia has had only unofficial ties with Taiwan. Ahead of the trip, China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said Mr Morrison’s trip would have a “negative effect”.

Mr Morrison on Wednesday said Beijing had continually tried to “verbal” Australia’s “One China” policy.

“So let me be clear about what it is, and what it isn’t. In recognising the People’s Republic of China in 1972, Australia’s One China policy acknowledged that the PRC had claims over Taiwan, however it did not recognise the legitimacy of those claims, either way, on behalf of any party.

“Taiwan’s ultimate status was to be resolved peacefully … The status of Taiwan is deliberately ambiguous, and remains so.”

From the West’s perspective, he said, “this status quo is anchored in preventing conflict, ensuring respect for the autonomy of the people of Taiwan and the maintenance of a strategic balance within the Indo-Pacific ­region that favours peace, stability and prosperity.

Thanks to @hon_russjkun, @ScottMorrisonMP, @KellyCraftKY, @MattMurray8, & @Furuya_keiji for participating in the 2023 Yushan Forum. Speaking today, I made it clear that #Taiwan is, in no small way, a part of the solution to the challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region. pic.twitter.com/k5PkpZqloT

— 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) October 11, 2023

“Our challenge is how we now protect this balance in a vastly altered geopolitical environment to the one in which our One China policy settings were first established 50 years ago.

“This requires a critical appraisal of diplomatic, economic and security policy settings, within the context of preserving the status quo.”

He said it was crucial Taiwan was allowed to more fully engage with the international community, in ways that did not cross the “threshold of national statehood”, by including it in groups such as the CPTPP trade pact, Interpol, the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation and other UN forums.

He also said the Quad should look to engage with Taiwan. “China’s economic rise has been deliberately used to establish a capability to forcibly bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control … Whether the PRC chooses to exercise this capability is another matter.

“This is the subject of a more extensive calculus, which we must work constantly to ensure can never add up. This is achievable. As Ukraine demonstrates, but also Iraq and Afghanistan, wars can be started but they cannot be easily concluded, nor their purposes durably accomplished.”

In an interview with The Australian in Taipei, Mr Morrison said Taiwan was “not specifically” the impetus for his decision to pursue nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS security group but it was “part of the mix.”

He said engagement with Taiwan through the Quad could cover “security issues”, along with supply chain resilience and dis­aster prevention.

He said his government had already been “setting down this path” of expanding Australia’s co-operation with Taiwan and his speech was “not an attempt to be confrontational but an attempt to evolve a setting to make it ­durable.”

“Of course [Beijing] will resist it. But if you don’t stand on that point of resistance, then it will fall. This is what happened in the South China Sea. They will keep pushing forward and forward and forward until someone says no,” he told The Australian.