US-China defense talks last week failed to bridge gaps over Taiwan and crisis management issues, a senior US defense official said on Tuesday.
The Pentagon sees a "continuing substantial increase" in Chinese military capabilities and during the talks in Beijing, Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Lawless repeated the US view that China is "complicit in creating or escalating tensions" with Taiwan, the official said.
Lawless and his delegation went into the meetings last week hoping to "break the impasse" over an agreement that would ensure the two sides can cooperate in case of sea and air emergencies, the official said.
But the so-called military maritime consultative agreement has for seven years been "semi-hostage" to continuing policy disputes over maritime territorial issues and remains that way, he said.
The senior official said the next Pentagon report will conclude that "the build-up continues apace."
There is a "continuing substantial increase in capabilities, particularly ... to improve their ability to either coerce or attack Taiwan," he said.
"It is a reason for concern and we don't miss any opportunity to express to the Chinese that we think they are complicit in creating or escalating tensions by that particular build-up. We repeated that at this meeting" in Beijing, he added.
The official was speaking about US-Chinese relations to reporters condition of anonymity.
He said the most recent military and defense policy white paper released by Beijing described the US military presence in the Pacific and the security situation regarding Taiwan in troubling ways.
The US presence in the region had "complicated security factors," the Chinese military document stated. And the situation in the Taiwan Strait is "grim," it added.
During recent talks, Pentagon officials pressed their Chinese counterparts to explain those choices of words, which the Defense Department official described as "an escalation in the level of rhetoric."
Contacts between the US and China were cut off after the collision of a US navy surveillance plane with a Chinese fighter jet in 2001. Ties have warmed over the past two years, but tensions remain over Taiwanese and Chinese technology sales to Iran.
The two countries will hold more military talks next month or in April in Washington hosted by US Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, the official said.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has agreed in principle to visit China this year after repeated invitations, "but there was absolutely no commitment to do so," the official said.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS