EDITORIAL: Squaring the security circleIn a Taipei Times editorial published almost three years ago (“Macron goes off-piste,” April 13, 2023, page 8), French President Emmanuel Macron was criticized for comments he made immediately after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. This is not to say that the conclusions of the 2023 editorial should be dismissed entirely, but we can use the present reality as a measure of how much things have changed. Much of what Carney expressed so eloquently was on the minds of many other world leaders. Still, Carney’s trip to Beijing, even if he were aware of the contradiction, certainly gave Xi his PR boost, as did Starmer’s and Macron’s. To square the national security circle, Taiwan relies on the hard power of the US and on the soft power of like-minded middle powers that would stand with it, stop pretending and name realities.

Source: Taipei Times February 07, 2026 17:29 UTC