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From:

https://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20210814000357-260102?chdtv

https://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20210815000271-260118

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Diplomacy and national defense are businesses of conscience, because only those directly involved know what is really going on; those outside could hardly exercise oversight. This is especially true for national defense. Its unique nature allows it to continue hiding in a dark corner even after Taiwan’s democratization. With cross-strait relations increasingly testy now, defense issue should at last step into the sunshine.

Generally speaking, until the turn of the century, Taiwan was capable of safeguarding its security by itself. However, the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in former Yugoslavia and Taiwan’s pronouncement of “special state-to-state relationship” in 1999 gave a big push to Beijing’s drive toward military buildup. Its capabilities to strike Taiwan reached a minimal level by 2008. As of now, according to a number of studies in the United States, China is capable of disrupting or denying possible American intervention, creating a new fait accompli in the Taiwan Strait.

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Lithuania had announced that it would allow us to set up a representative office in Lithuania under the name of the "Taiwanese Representative Office", while the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen declared it a major diplomatic breakthrough. However, "Taiwanese" is not equivalent to the official name of the Republic of China (ROC) after all, and Lithuania has not given up its "One China” policy. The said "breakthrough" might only satisfy the psychological needs of some people.

Lithuania is slightly larger than Taiwan with a population of only 2.8 million. She is far away from Taiwan geographically. Two-way trade volume between these two countries has not been significant. Lithuania nudged toward Taiwan due to the United States factors. The Soviet Union incorporated Lithuania as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic during World War II. In March 1990, Lithuania declared independence when the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was about to disintegrate. At that time, the ROC  government sought to establish diplomatic relations with Lithuania by sending officials to contact its counterparts in Vilnius.  The situation seemed to be favorable to Taiwan. However, then Minister of Foreign Affairs Fredrick Chien pointed out: "We are willing to further develop diplomatic relations, but we must take into account of the other side’s real intention, and our country cannot harbor a wishful thinking". Lithuania might not have even considered establishing official relations with the ROC then. Unfortunately, just one week after Chien’s words, Lithuania established diplomatic relations with mainland China. In the communiqué of the establishment of diplomatic relations, Lithuania expressed, "The Government of the Republic of Lithuania recognizes the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China, and Taiwan is an inseparable part of the territory of China. The Government of the Republic of Lithuania undertakes not to establish official relations or conduct official exchanges with Taiwan.”

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The development of chaotic conflict in Afghanistan is so astonishing. Progress of the Taliban armed forces is literally invincible. Comparatively, the United States is pretty embarrassing to face the ugly realities. Medias in various nations all address that the strategy of the United States involvement in the Afghanistan domestic politics for the past twenty years is unquestionably wrong. Although pouring unbelievably huge amount budgets on infrastructure construction, yet, it totally failed to correct the corruption within the current governing authority. Further, the discipline of its forces is so awful thus completely undermining the war-fighting capabilities. The trend cannot be turned anymore. The fate of the pro-US regime is already foregone.

The New York Times has published a special commentary with no reservation indicating the scheme of the United States adopted for managing international relations treating the pro-US regimes always started with disordered policies and betrayed them in the final moments eventually will inevitably questioned by the international community. Particularly, several extremely pro-US nations in the world that desperately expecting the United States will exercise military intervention measures during crisis situations to support the survival of their regimes by providing military force protection are specifically named.

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