In a late change to its election campaign platform this year, the Democratic Party expanded its commitment to Taiwan, adding two small but important phrases to an earlier draft that virtually ignored the Taiwan issue.
In the final document, which will be presented to the party’s presidential nominating convention in Denver next week, the party added references to the Taiwan Relations Act and the wishes of Taiwanese.
An earlier draft, which was the basis of a Taipei Times story last weekend, only referred to a commitment to the so-called “one-China” policy and the need for a peaceful solution to cross-strait issues.
As amended, the final section on Taiwan is still small. It now reads: “We are committed to a ‘One China’ policy and the Taiwan Relations Act, and will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross Straits [sic] issues that is consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan.”
However, presumptive party presidential candidate Barack Obama has gone beyond those commitments in statements and letters on Taiwan in recent months.
In May, Obama sent a letter to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) congratulating Ma on his inauguration and offering his support.
“A sound US-Taiwan relationship will certainly be the goal of my administration,” Obama wrote.
“I believe that the United States should strengthen channels of communication with officials of your government. We should continue to provide the arms necessary for Taiwan to deter possible aggression,” he wrote.
The letter, which was believed to have been drafted by Richard Bush, a key Obama advisor and a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the US’ de facto embassy in the absence of diplomatic ties, called Ma’s election and inauguration “good days for the people of Taiwan, for the forces of democracy around the world and for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and western Pacific.”
It also expressed the hope that China would respond to Ma’s presidency “in a constructive and forward-leaning way.”
The Republican Party, whose convention is at the beginning of next month, is expected to release its platform later this month.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
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
RSS