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.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS