US President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law the US National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, which for the first time included a section on senior military exchanges with Taiwan.
The bill cleared the US Senate in a 92-7 vote on Dec. 8 after its approval in the US House of Representatives by a vote of 375-34 six days earlier.
Section 1284 of the act states: “It is the sense of [US] Congress that the [US] Secretary of Defense should conduct a program of senior military exchanges between the United States and Taiwan that have the objective of improving military-to-military relations and defense cooperation between the United States and Taiwan.”
Screengrab from the Military News Agency Web site
A “sense of Congress” is not legally binding, even though the language is included in an otherwise legally effective legislation.
It reflects the view of many on Capitol Hill who think the current level of US military exchanges with Taiwan has been insufficient.
It remains to be seen whether or how the administration of US president-elect Donald Trump will act on this section of the act.
Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
If implemented, the act stipulates that the senior military exchange program should be conducted at least once each calendar year in both Taiwan and the US.
It defines “senior military exchange” as “an activity, exercise, professional education event, or observation opportunity in which senior military officers and senior defense officials participate.”
It also defined “senior military officer” as a general or flag officer on active duty in the armed forces, while “senior defense official,” in reference to the US Department of Defense, was defined as a civilian official at the level of assistant secretary of defense or above.
The act will elevate Taiwan-US military ties to another level if institutionalized, National Chung Hsing University Institute of International Politics professor Tsai Ming-yan (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
The law is not only symbolic, but will have some practical effects, he said, adding that Taiwan and the US would have deeper cooperation on threat assessments and battle plans.
China might become agitated over the closer Taiwan-US ties, but continued threat of armed conflict against Taiwan would only deepen Taiwan’s resolve to work with the US and Japan, Tsai said, adding that China should seek to enter into dialogue with Taiwan.
The Ministry of National Defense said it has made a number of plans for next year, including Political Warfare Bureau Director Wen Chen-kuo (聞振國) leading a delegation to visit the Pentagon, at which time the two sides would discuss strategic goals and cooperation on matters of psychological warfare.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS