President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US president-elect Donald Trump spoke over the telephone on issues relating to improving the economy and strengthening national defense, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
The conversation, which the Presidential Office said took place at 11pm on Friday and lasted slightly longer than 10 minutes, was the first publicly reported call between a US president or a president-elect and a Taiwanese leader since 1979, when Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
Tsai congratulated Trump on his victory in the closely contested US presidential election and said she believed he would make an excellent president, the Presidential Office said in a news release, which added that Tsai also conveyed to Trump the hope that the US would support Taiwan making more contributions to and having more participation in international issues.
Photo provided by the Presidential Office
National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) and two other presidential aides were present during the conversation, the news release said.
Tsai and Trump talked about their views and ideals on governance, especially on promoting domestic economic development and strengthening national defense to ensure a better, safer life for the public, it said.
The two leaders also briefly exchanged views on the situation in Asia, it added.
On Taiwan-US relations, Tsai expressed the hope of boosting bilateral exchanges and contacts and establishing closer cooperation, it said.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) confirmed that it was Tsai who made the call to Trump following a pre-arranged procedure.
While he declined to give other details about the arrangement, a source familiar with the matter said that Edwin Feulner, founder of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, played a key role in setting up the call.
Feulner, in Taipei in October, joined the Trump team in August, according to US media reports.
Trump also took to Twitter about the call.
The US president-elect tweeted: “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!”
The traditional US diplomatic formulation for referring to Taiwan’s leader is “the president on Taiwan.”
In a second tweet Trump wrote: “Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.”
US President Barack Obama’s White House said the outgoing US administration had not changed its stance.
“There is no change to our longstanding policy on cross-strait issues,” US National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said.
“We remain firmly committed to our ‘One China’ policy,” she added. “Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable cross-strait relations.”
Additional reporting by AFP and The Guardian
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
The navy next month is expected to commission into service two more domestically built Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes, a source said yesterday. The Hsu Chiang (旭江, PGG-621) and the Wu Chiang (武江, PGG-623) would be officially commissioned in a ceremony early next month, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The corvettes, launched in February and June last year respectively, were delivered to the navy in February. They are the third and fourth Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes to be produced. The Tuo Chiang-class corvette is a domestically designed and manufactured class of fast and stealthy multipurpose corvette built for the
A total of 41 US military personnel were stationed in Taiwan as of December last year, a US congressional report said on Friday last week ahead of Tuesday’s passage of an aid package that included US$8 billion for Taiwan. The Congressional Research Service in a report titled Taiwan Defense Issues for Congress said that according to the US Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center, 41 US military personnel were assigned for duty in Taiwan. Although the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1979 included a vow to withdraw a military presence from Taiwan, “observers have indicated