Outgoing Taiwanese President Lays Claim to Contested Islands

  Taiwan’s outgoing president, Ma Ying-jeou, has decided to make a tactical visit to the Pengjia Island in order to officially state Taiwan’s sovereignty over conflict territories in the South China Sea. Beginning in January, Ma has made several visits to other islands, such as Taiping Island, with the focus of actively promoting territorial dominance. His visits come at a time when Beijing has begun to manufacture multiple islands fashioned with airplane runways and aircraft military bases.

Ma has repeatedly said that his intentions are to promote peace in order to mitigate the steady build up of collective land-grab paranoia. China has reconfirmed with Taiwan that it has a duty to protect China’s territorial interests. On the other hand, the American Institute in Taiwan has publicly stated that it believes Ma’s actions are “extremely unhelpful,” as they do not ease any tension.

However, some analysts believe that Ma is only going through all of this trouble in order to build his legacy. They believe that his lame-duck position is compelling him to make one last push towards growing Taiwan’s political presence. Some members of the Democratic Progressive Party believe that Ma has been supporting Beijing during his January visit to Taiping Island, which is claimed by Beijing, Taipei, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Ma is speculated to behave this way because of his desire to foster closer ties with China.

Regardless of Ma’s final political activities, Taiwan will have a new political landscape as its first female president, Tsai Ing-wen from the Democratic Progressive Party, takes office. A new political ideology could possibly help or hinder the South China Sea dispute.