President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday the government’s policy on procuring weapons from the US remained unchanged, adding that the US should explain to its Congress Taiwan’s stance in that regard to allow the matter to clear the congressional floor and proceed forward.
Ma made the remarks after being asked for comment on a story published in the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday that claimed White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley had called National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起) to inform him of the Bush administration’s decision to freeze arms sales to Taiwan and request that Taipei avoid any comments on the matter.
Dismissing the report, Ma said he had often stated the need for Taiwan to acquire defensive weapons. Saying the legislature had already passed the budgets, Ma added he hoped the arms procurement “would go as originally planned.”
Su yesterday also denied he had received a call from the White House. Su issued the denial through Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦).
Various sources in the US — including the Senate and the US-Taiwan Business Council — have recently expressed concern about a possible freeze on arms sales.
In a statement released on June 11, US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said that the US Department of State was sitting on congressional notifications related to a number of weapons systems requested by Taiwan.
In a joint letter sent on June 30 by a group of 14 senators to US President George W. Bush, the senators said they had made fruitless attempts to clarify the status of these requests and urged the administration to “expeditiously execute consideration of these requests.”
Asked about the issue on Friday in Washington, Tan Chih-lung (淡志隆), chief of Taiwan’s military delegation to the US, said eight congressional notifications were pending at the Department of State and that whether the arms procurements could be completed before Bush’s term ends remained uncertain.
Tan said his delegation in Washington had told the US that the budgets for the eight bills had been approved by the legislature and that it hoped the US would pass the bills as soon as possible.
Asked about a Washington Post report claiming that Taiwanese national security officials had asked Washington to temporarily halt arms sales to Taiwan, Tan said he did not know where this information came from.
Since the legislature has already passed the budget, Taiwan has made a commitment to the purchases, he said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a