US Secretary of State John Kerry promised a member of the US Congress on Wednesday that he would look into the imprisonment of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who is in failing health.
Kerry also agreed to investigate the status of Taiwan’s request to buy eight diesel-electric submarines from the US.
The remarks came as members of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee questioned Kerry during a special hearing on next year’s foreign affairs budget and on securing US interests abroad.
Republican Representative Steve Chabot, co-founder of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, first asked Kerry about the submarines.
“I’d like to talk about Taiwan just for a minute,” he said.
“Back in 2001, there was the announcement by [then-US] president [George W.] Bush at the time of Washington’s willingness to cooperate with Taiwan in acquiring eight diesel-electric submarines at the cost of US$12 billion,” Chabot said.
“The official position of Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense remains committed to procuring those submarines from the US,” he said.
Chabot said the sale has been stalled because the US stopped making diesel-electric submarines many years ago.
“I know we’ve worked with France and some of our allies on this,” he said. “Could you advise what the current status of these submarines being acquired by Taiwan is?”
Turning to the issue of Chen’s health, he said that Chen “languishes to this day in a jail cell in Taiwan.”
“To me, it smacks of the criminalization of politics. To the extent that this administration communicates with President Ma [Ying-jeou (馬英九)], I would just urge you to urge President Ma to do the humanitarian thing. President Chen’s health is failing,” he said.
Kerry replied: “Well, thank you, congressman. I appreciate it.”
“I’ll take that and just follow up on it, and let me see what we can do about that,” he added.
A US Department of State source said later that Kerry would “most probably” provide Chabot with written comments on both issues within the next month.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS