Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) officials yesterday admitted the forced withdrawal of a Taiwanese delegation from a regional security forum in Indonesia this week was the result of China’s intervention.
Taiwan had been invited by the Indonesian government to attend the third Jakarta International Defense Dialogue (JIDD), held on Wednesday and Thursday, but the invitation was withdrawn at the last minute without explanation.
The British newspaper the Financial Times, which broke the story on Thursday, quoted Indonesian Major General Syaiful Anwar, one of the organizers of the event, as saying Indonesia discouraged Taiwan from attending the conference following a verbal protest from Beijing.
Delegation member Alexander Huang (黃介正), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the ministry told him on Tuesday the trip had been canceled, but did not say why.
Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said the ministry thought “there was some truth” to the newspaper report because he also suspected that China was involved.
Lin said the ministry needed to communicate with the Indonesian government to understand the reason for the abrupt withdrawal of the invitation.
“It’s much to our regret that the delegation’s two academics were not able to attend the conference. They both have strong academic backgrounds and they are acquainted with security issues in the Asia-Pacific region,” Lin said.
The other academic was Ma Chen-kun (馬振坤), a professor at National Defense University’s Fu Hsing Kang College, who attended the conference last year as a Taiwanese delegate. He declined to comment on the issue yesterday.
The two other members of the delegation were staffers at the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Jakarta.
The JIDD incident came on the heels of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) four-day trip to the Vatican, Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Europe, to attend Pope Francis’ inauguration Mass on Tuesday, sparking speculation that Beijing’s action was in response to Ma’s trip.
Lin said it was more likely that the incident was “an isolated case” than a reaction to Ma’s trip because China had responded relatively mildly to his visit, although it did call on the Vatican to cut its diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
A ministry source said one reason Taiwan may have been blocked from this year’s JIDD could be that the Chinese delegation was led by a high-ranking official, Qi Jianguo (戚建國), deputy chief of the General Staff, while last year it was led by General Liu Yazhou (劉亞洲), a political commissioner at the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defense University.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS