The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it would not authorize retired generals to conduct military negotiations or military exchanges with their Chinese counterparts amid US concerns that former senior members of the armed forces were paying frequent visits to China.
The Chinese-language China Times yesterday said the US had asked Taiwan’s representative to Washington, Jason Yuan (袁健生), to explain the close exchanges between retired Taiwanese generals and Chinese military officials. The report said the US was concerned that Taiwan may be conducting military negotiations or exchanges through the retired military officials, thus bypassing the US.
Washington was also concerned about the possibility of military secrets being leaked, the report said.
“It is understandable for the United States to voice concerns, given the rapidly improving ties between Taipei and Beijing,” Chen Wen-yi (陳文義), deputy chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ North American Affairs Department, told AFP.
In April, more than 20 retired generals, led by retired generals Hsu Li-nong (許歷農) and Cheng Ting-chung (陳廷寵), visited retired Chinese generals and government officials, one of many such visits in the past two years.
Hsu said publicly that the visit was to promote a military confidence-building mechanism.
In May, 27 retired generals went to China to play golf with Chinese counterparts, while more than 20 retired generals are currently on a visit to Nanjing.
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday would not comment on Washington’s concerns, adding that cross-strait negotiations were currently focused on economics, with no political or military talks in the pipeline.
The ministry said it had never authorized retired military personnel to promote confidence-building mechanisms with Chinese officials, adding that while it generally prohibited retired generals from going to China, in the past two years some had managed to circumvent the restrictions.
It called on retired military personnel to refrain from such visits.
Asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) of the Foreign and National Defense Committee said the government was not ready to negotiate confidence-building mechanisms with Beijing.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG AND AFP
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS