American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt on Tuesday said Chinese pressure on Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to cancel a visit to Taiwan was “unacceptable” and inconsistent with Beijing’s claims it sought to improve ties with Taipei.
Nixon last month scrapped plans to visit Taiwan after a Chicago-based Chinese diplomat warned the trip could imperil a project by China to turn St Louis airport into a hub for Chinese cargo in the US.
Over the previous two years, eight US governors have visited Taiwan.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Burghardt called China’s actions “absolutely unacceptable.”
“My impression is that most American politicians, American governors, they don’t like to be pushed around that way,” he said.
Burghardt said China’s actions were at odds with the improvements in relations across the Taiwan Strait that have taken place since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英) came into office in May 2008.
“It’s ... inconsistent with all their professions of desire to improve cross-strait relations to treat Taiwan that way,” Burghardt said. “I think it’s a serious matter.”
Turning to Taiwan’s international space, Burghardt said the US “takes seriously” Taipei’s participation in international organizations and “will continue to work for ways to help Taiwan improve its international representation.”
“I think whatever we do, it probably never looks like enough. But as I said, there is a lot [that] goes on, and we do a lot,” he said
Emphasizing his point, Burghardt pointed to an instance in which Washington helped Taiwan participate in an international event — a case he said had not been made public up until now.
Working behind the scenes, the US succeeded in having the online registration system for the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, last month changed so that a Taiwanese NGO delegation could register and participate without having to do so under “one China,” he said.
Prior to the change, Burghardt said, the online registration system only had one option — one that linked Taiwan to China.
“You can rest assured that we are the best friend Taiwan has,” he said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS