American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt yesterday reassured President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that US policy on Taiwan remained unchanged, including its position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and commitment to help Taiwan meet its defense needs.
Burghardt’s visit comes a week after US President Barack Obama visited China. Since the US’ Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) was not mentioned in the US-China joint statement issued during Obama’s visit, the Democratic Progressive Party had expressed concern that the US might have backtracked on its commitment to Taiwan.
Despite the omission in the joint statement, Obama spoke about the TRA in the joint press statement he gave with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Burghardt told Ma that Obama has made remarks both in public and private reaffirming Washington’s longstanding policies toward Taiwan, including its position on Taiwanese sovereignty.
“US public and private statements on Taiwan, including the joint US-China statement, in no way represented any change whatsoever in the United States’ position concerning sovereignty over Taiwan,” he said. “Simply put, the US has never taken a position on the political status of Taiwan.”
The TRA remains the central document governing relations between Taipei and Washington, as Obama pointed out in his public statement in Beijing about the US’ commitment to the TRA, Burghardt said.
He said Washington has long urged that cross-strait issues should be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the wishes of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Ma thanked Washington for keeping his administration informed about Obama’s trip before and after the visit.
“Our representative in the US felt that it was the first time they could obtain information about a US president’s trip to China so smoothly and abundantly,” he said.
Ma said that since Obama’s visit to China was the first of its kind since the two presidents took office, Taiwanese were very interested in what Obama would say to the “mainland leader” and what agreements would be signed.
Two issues of grave concern, Ma said, were the US’ respect for “mainland China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and Washington’s hope to see efforts by both sides to increase dialogue and interactions in economic, political and other fields.
Ma said he hoped to see Washington sell Taiwan the more advanced F-16 C/D fighter jets to replace its aged F5s in a speedy manner.
On US beef, Ma said his administration would impose the so-called “three controls and five checks” measure. This refers to border controls and various safety screening measures.
However, Ma said that none of the measures would violate the protocol on bone-in beef signed with Washington and would conform to the regulations of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the WTO.
He said his administration would strive to protect public health while honoring the country’s international obligations, adding that he believed the health and economic agencies would find a way to satisfy the needs of all involved.
At a separate setting later yesterday during a meeting with local media, Burghardt said the items that were not approved by Congress as part of an arms deal with Taiwan in October last year, such as F-16 jets, did not mean they have been ruled out completely.
These items will be considered at another time, he said, reiterating recent comments by Jeff Bader, the East Asia director on the White House’s National Security Council, that “there will be arms sales to this administration.”
When asked about the Chinese missiles pointed at Taiwan, Burghardt said that the number of missiles has increased and that they continue to pose a threat to Taiwan.
“[The missiles are] a form of threat. That’s the only way to look at it ... yes, of course they should remove the missiles,” he said, but added that the missiles were only one part of China’s overall threat to Taiwan and that US security commitments to Taiwan covered all contingencies.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU
Also See: Electronic commerce agreement progressing: Stanton
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS