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.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it plans to revise the export control list for strategic high-tech products by adding 18 items under three categories — advanced 3D printing equipment, advanced semiconductor equipment and quantum computers — which would require local manufacturers to obtain licenses for their export. The ministry’s announcement yesterday came as the International Trade Administration issued a 60-day preview period for planned revisions to the Export Control List for Dual Use Items and Technology (軍商兩用貨品及技術出口管制清單) and the Common Military List (一般軍用貨品清單), which fall under regulations governing export destinations for strategic high-tech commodities and specific strategic high-tech commodities. The
RSS