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John J. Tkacik, Jr. is an Adjunct Professor at IWP. He formerly served as Chief of China Analysis at the U.S. State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Full bio

On Taiwan: The Governor and the Generalissimo

I don’t want to suggest that there currently are any secret undertakings between the Biden Administration and Xi Jinping’s (習近平) regime. I would only caution that secret understandings and clandestine assurances are anathema to America’s principles of diplomacy. President Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” demanded “open covenants, openly arrived at, that proceed always frankly and in…

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Qin Gang, Song Tao and ‘Special Agent Diplomacy’

In 1988, young Comrade Qin Gang (秦剛) did not graduate from the China Foreign Affairs University (外交學院), China’s training academy for diplomats. He never attended the Institute. Instead, he graduated from Beijing’s “University of International Relations” (國際關係學院) which, as I recall from early in my diplomatic career, was a campus well-known for its affiliation with…

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“Walking-Back” President Biden’s Taiwan Policy?

In the clandestine services they used to say, “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time, it is enemy action.” In the diplomatic services, “the fourth time the President of the United States says something, it’s policy.” During a painful post-Afghanistan evacuation interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on August 19, 2021, President Joe…

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Commemorating Shanghai, Narnia

On Monday, February 28, 2022, the Department of State press spokesman addressed a question relating to “Narnia National Day,” an issue that will become clear below. Earlier that same day, Wang Wenbin (汪文彬), the press spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that “this morning, the Meeting in Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary…

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Taiwan’s ‘meaningful participation’

Ironically, October 25, 2021, was a milestone in Taiwan’s “meaningful participation” in the international community. “Ironic” because Taiwan was booted out of the United Nations exactly 50 years before. Beijing cynically celebrated the same anniversary of the “People’s Republic’s” admission to the United Nations and “the expulsion forthwith of the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” (蔣介石)…

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