The US may be preparing to post Marines at its representative office in Taipei — a small but symbolically significant change in its delicate political relationship with Taiwan.
A US State Department advertisement that ran in the Taipei Times and the China Post yesterday and today called for contractors to build quarters for Marine security guards at a new US compound in Taipei.
Since the US switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, there have been no Marine security guards at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in keeping with its low political profile.
It is customary for the US to have Marines guarding its embassies and consulates worldwide.
Placing the guards at AIT — the de facto US embassy — would constitute another in a series of gradual steps in upgrading its status.
An AIT spokesman had no immediate comment on the possible dispatch of Marines to Taipei.
Alexander Huang (黃介正), chair of the Graduate Institute of American Studies at Tamkang University, said that sending the Marines would mark an improvement in bilateral relations.
“With the Marine guards in place, the US would be treating its Taipei facility just like its other embassies and consulates despite the lack of diplomatic relations,” he said.
AIT staffers were originally required to sever their relationship with the US State Department and other US government agencies before commencing work at AIT. That requirement has since been dropped.
In 2005 the US began placing military attaches there, although to keep a low profile, they did not wear uniforms.
The new AIT building is a part of a large-scale State Department overseas construction program. The facility, to be built in Neihu District (內湖), will replace an aging downtown compound.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS