US Senator Max Baucus, US President Barack Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to China, said on Tuesday that he would “encourage China to reduce military deployments aimed at Taiwan.”
The six-term Democrat from Montana told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would “make clear” to the Chinese leadership that the US welcomes continued progress in cross-strait relations and is looking for Beijing to “pursue a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues.”
At a hearing called to review his nomination, Baucus indicated that he would take a hard line on commercial and security disputes, saying that he would tell the Chinese leadership: “Uh-uh, we won’t be taken advantage of.”
The 72-year-old Baucus is expected to be quickly confirmed.
“I will urge China’s leaders to protect the universal human rights and the freedoms of all its citizens, including ethnic and religious minorities,” he said. “I’ll call on Chinese authorities to reduce tensions in Tibet and Xinjiang, and restart substantive talks with the Dalai Lama or his representatives without preconditions.”
He said it was imperative for the US to be deeply involved in the Asia-Pacific region, but that Washington should be “very wary” of Chinese references to “core interests.”
China’s focus on these “core interests” — such as Taiwan and the South China Sea — suggested that Beijing wanted to take care of its part of the world without US participation, he said.
“That is not an approach that makes sense to me,” he said.
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez said he appreciated Baucus’ remarks that he would stand up “for our principles” on issues such as Taiwan, human rights and Tibet.
Senator Marco Rubio said there were some real challenges ahead as China tried to persuade the US to “erode or abandon” regional commitments to Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus led the push to enact free-trade agreements with 11 countries, including Singapore and South Korea.
He said that he would have two “overarching goals” as ambassador.
The first would be to develop the economic relationship in a way that benefited US businesses and workers.
The second would be to partner with China as it emerges as a global power and to encourage it to act responsibly in resolving international disputes, respecting human rights and protecting the environment, he said.
“As China emerges on the global stage, it has the responsibility to contribute more to preserving the regional and global security that has enabled its rise,” he said.
“Countries in the Asia-Pacific [region] have expressed concerns about China’s pursuit of its territorial claims and maritime disputes,” Baucus said.
“I will urge China to follow international law on maritime issues and other international standards, and stress that all sides must work together to manage and resolve sovereignty disputes without coercion or use of force,” he said.
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,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS