Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday that Beijing's draft "anti-secession" law targeting Taiwan runs counter to US-China diplomatic ties mandating that China should resolve the Taiwan issue in a peaceful manner.
Lu, who arrived in Houston on Saturday night for a three-day transit stay en route to El Salvador for a state visit, said during her flight to Houston that if the "anti-secession" law were indeed passed and allows the People's Liberation Army to use "non-peaceful means" against Taiwan, the law would seriously contradict the principles of the Taiwan Relations Act.
Lu departed Taipei on Saturday for an official visit to El Salvador and Guatemala. She is also scheduled to make transit stops in Houston and Miami during her 12-day trip.
Lu said Beijing's "anti-secession" law is not just a problem for Taiwan, but is a concern for the whole world, particularly the US.
She said that before departing Taipei, she has exchanged views with President Chen Shui-bian (
Lu was accorded a reception befitting a visitor of her status upon her arrival in Houston, with William Brown, acting chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), and David Lee (李大維), Taiwan's top liaison officer in the US, going aboard Lu's charter flight to welcome her.
Lu was scheduled to eat at a Houston steakhouse that Chen visited in June 2001 at noon yesterday and meet with a group of pro-Taiwan lawmakers in Texas.
In the evening, Lu is scheduled to deliver a speech on the implications of Beijing's enactment of the "anti-secession" law at a dinner with some 300 overseas Taiwanese who will come from around the state of Texas.
Lu is scheduled to visit NASA headquarters Monday morning.
According to the delegation's itinerary, Lu will inspect the possibility of establishing a "Taiwan Park" for industries in El Salvador, in the hopes that the park's construction can be completed and its operations begun within the remaining three years of Chen's term.
Lu will also attend a regional meeting of the Democratic Pacific Union (DPU) in America in Guatemala. Six Central American allies and five non-allied countries in North, Central and South America will attend the meeting, Lu said, adding that this will be a warm-up to a DPU regional organization to be established in Taipei on August 14.
During the 12-day visit, she will call on Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca and Vice President Ana Vilma De Escobar and Guatemalan President Oscar Berger.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development