Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday urged Taiwan not to move toward independence, just days ahead of his scheduled visit to Beijing.
"I want to make it clear that Australia opposes any actions or statements that could be seen as moves by Taiwan towards independence," Downer said in Sydney. "This would be to risk, to use a diplomatic euphemism, upsetting regional stability, which would be in no one's interests, including the interests of the people of Taiwan."
The remarks come in the same week that Taiwan launched its latest campaign to join the UN.
Reiterating its long-standing support for the "one China" policy, Downer said Australia urges both China and Taiwan "to explore actively new approaches towards dialogue aimed at reducing tensions across the Taiwan Strait with a view to achieving a lasting peaceful solution."
Downer, who is due to visit Beijing briefly next week on his way to North Korea for talks on its nuclear program, said Taiwan and China should negotiate a way out of the impasse.
Downer also said North Korea is capable of targeting Australia with a long-range missile and that Australia was ill-equipped to cope with such an attack.
"We believe they have developed a long-range missile that could go all the way from North Korea to the United States or, for that matter, here," he told Australian radio. "They could fire a missile from North Korea to Sydney."
In a bid to break the diplomatic deadlock over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, China, the US, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia are due to hold a fourth round of negotiations before the end of next month.
Australia is not involved in the talks.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS