CIA Director Porter Goss said on Thursday that the opportunity for reconciliation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait had been damaged by China's passage of its "Anti-Secession" Law and Taiwan's push for a new constitution.
In testimony to the Senate Committee on Armed Services on Thursday morning, Goss cited both the new law and Taiwan's "constitutional re-engineering" as negative factors affecting cross-strait relations.
Gross made the statement while discussing current and future worldwide threats to US national security. He said the Taiwan Strait is one of the five most sensitive security issues in the world.
"A mild thaw in cross-strait relations, following the first-ever non-stop flights across the Strait, may be eclipsed by Beijing's Anti-Secession Law and Taipei's constitutional reform agenda," he said.
"Beijing enacted on March 14 an anti-secession law [that] Taipei characterizes as a war-authorizing law. Taipei's National Assembly will vote this summer on constitutional reforms that Beijing has warned are part of a timeline for independence," he said.
"If Beijing decides that Taiwan is taking steps toward permanent separation that exceed Beijing's tolerance, we believe China is prepared to respond with various levels of force," he said.
According to Goss, Beijing's military modernization and military buildup is tilting the balance of power in the Strait, and its improved capabilities are threatening US forces in the region now.
"In 2004, China increased its ballistic missile forces deployed across from Taiwan and rolled out several new submarines," he said, stressing that China continues to develop more robust, survivable nuclear-armed missiles, as well as conventional capabilities for use in a regional conflict.
He said that China is increasingly confident and active on the international stage, trying to ensure it has a voice on major issues and counter what it sees as US efforts to contain or encircle it.
"[The] new leadership under President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is facing an array of domestic challenges in 2005, such as the potential for a resurgence in inflation, increased dependence on exports, growing economic inequalities, increased awareness of individual rights, and popular expectations for the new leadership," Gross said.
He also addressed the controversy over his agency's interrogation practices during his testimony.
US officials do not view torture as a method for gaining vital intelligence, Goss said. But he acknowledged some CIA operatives may have been uncertain about approved interrogation techniques in the past.
"Professional interrogation has become a very useful and necessary way to obtain information to save innocent lives, to disrupt terrorist schemes and to protect our combat forces," he said.
"The United States does not engage in or condone torture," he said.
"I know for a fact that torture is not productive. That's not professional interrogation. We don't torture," he said.
Goss said the CIA complied fully with a broad definition of torture contained in a Justice Department memo issued on Dec. 30 last year. He could not offer assurances about CIA practices earlier last year, when the government followed a narrower interrogation policy.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS