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attend the third Jakarta International Defense Dialogue (JIDD), held on Wednesday and Thursday, but the invitation was withdrawn at the last minute without explanation.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.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
RSS