Visit to Taiping Island: An Exercise in Wastefulness and Futility

A bipartisan group of Taiwanese legislators headed for the South China Sea today to ‘defend’ the nation’s sovereignty. All of this is grandstanding and does nothing to protect Taiwan against external aggression 

A group of legislators from the ruling and opposition parties on Wednesday hopped onto a C-130 military transport aircraft and landed on Taiping Island (Itu Aba) in the disputed South China Sea to reaffirm Taiwan’s sovereignty claims after a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague last week designated the island as a rock, angering Taipei. 

The latest visit to the islet was initiated by Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who requested that Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense organize the trip after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “weak” response to last week’s ruling. Besides the legislators, fishermen from Southern Taiwan have also joined the visit. Legislators Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) and Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) are representing the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), where Lo also serves as director of international affairs. 

My article, published today in The News Lens International, continues here.