A senior US Department of State official with extensive working experience of Taiwan-US affairs is set to become the new director of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) this summer.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Kin Moy is to take over from AIT Director Christopher Marut.
Moy has served in the US Foreign Service for more than 20 years. He most recently had responsibility for Taiwan, China and Mongolia affairs.
Photo courtesy of the American Institute in Taiwan
Prior to that assignment, he served as a senior adviser to former US secretaries of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright.
In addition, he has served in the US embassy in Beijing, the US embassy in Seoul and the US Consulate in Busan, South Korea.
As a career member of the US Senior Foreign Service, he holds the rank of minister counselor.
Moy, married with four children, graduated from Columbia University and the University of Minnesota. He is a Mandarin speaker.
He takes over as director of the AIT at a particularly sensitive time, with the presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan in January next year.
Moy is also expected to be deeply involved in Taiwan’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement next year.
“Maintaining and deepening our strong unofficial relations with Taiwan is an important part of US engagement in Asia,” Moy said in his most recent major speech on US-Taiwan affairs at the Carnegie Endowment.
He said that much of the history of the 21st century would be written in Asia and a critical part of the US’ strategy would be “building the comprehensive, durable, mutually beneficial relationship between the US and Taiwan.”
“Our broad ranging, unofficial relationship is deeply in the interests of the US. It is founded on our shared values — a commitment to freedom and democracy — and cultivated through our ongoing spirit of cooperation,” Moy said.
Taiwan is recognized around the world, he said, as a model for both economic development and democratic reform.
Moy said that the US fully supports Taiwan’s membership in international organizations where statehood is not a requirement and encourages Taiwan’s “meaningful participation” in organizations where its membership is not possible.
On cross-strait relations, Moy said in the Carnegie speech that the US commended the progress achieved in recent years and encouraged both sides to continue those efforts.
“The reason is straightforward; maintenance of cross-strait stability is essential to the US goal of promoting peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said the government welcomes the appointment of Moy, who has played a part in mapping out US policies on Asia-Pacific affairs and “is familiar with the development of Taipei-Washington ties.”
“We believe that Moy will help expand and advance the Taiwan-US partnership, based on the strong foundations laid by his predecessor, Christopher Marut,” Kao said.
Moy is set to be the first AIT director of Chinese descent since the institution was established in 1979 after the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS