Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) began his 11-day visit yesterday in Los Angeles, California, expressing appreciation for the US’ arms sales to Taiwan, in an apparent reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) request that Washington cease the sales.
Xi raised the issue during his two-day informal summit with US President Barack Obama, which took place near Palm Springs, California, on Friday and Saturday.
Su told reporters before a dinner banquet that he would like to express his gratitued to the US for the arms it has sold to Taiwan over the past three decades in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
“The US government’s decade-long compliance with the TRA has prevented the people of Taiwan from fear of threat... The most important factor in maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait is taking China’s military threat against Taiwan out of the equation,” Su said.
Su, who is visiting the US and Canada and is scheduled to spend four days in Washington, met with US Representative Edward Royce at the dinner banquet, according to a press released issued by the DPP.
The Republican chair of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs was quoted as saying that he pledged the US Congress “would do whatever it can to ensure Taiwan’s democracy, economic development and security.”
Royce was also quoted as saying that he has been advocating for the Taiwan Policy Act on Capitol Hill and personally endorsed several measures that would improve bilateral cooperation, including the visit of high-ranking Taiwanese officials to Washington, a US-Taiwan free-trade agreement and Taiwan’s membership in the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Royce also said he would like to see the name of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington changed from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.
Su is scheduled to visit New York, Houston, Washington, Toronto and Vancouver before returning to Taiwan on June 18. The most important event on his itinerary will be inauguration of the DPP’s representative office in Washington on Friday.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS