US President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to announce new arms sales to Taiwan after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) scheduled for early next month in Florida, US media have reported.
An article published on Tuesday on the Washington Free Beacon Web site said that the Trump administration “is now preparing to provide more and better defensive arms to Taiwan,” citing administration officials familiar with internal discussion about the issue.
“The new arms package, however, is not expected to be made public until after Trump meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month,” it said.
It also quoted White House officials as saying that the meeting is set for early next month at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Former US president Barack Obama’s administration blocked a US$1 billion arms sale to Taiwan in December last year that had been approved by the US Department of State and the Pentagon, the article said.
That coincided with a controversial telephone call on Dec. 2 last year between then-US president-elect Trump and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Asked about the possibility of new arms sales to Taiwan, Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross said he would not discuss “pre-decisional matters,” the Beacon reported.
US arms sales have contributed to stability in the Taiwan Strait by providing Taipei with the confidence needed to purse constructive interaction with Beijing, Ross added.
Meanwhile, the New York Times also reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration is expected to “sell Taiwan a robust package of weapons, a gesture that reliably infuriates China.”
The sale would revive memories of Trump’s “unorthodox decision” to take a telephone call from Tsai, before publicly questioning the US’ “one China” policy, it said.
The reports came ahead of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first trip to Asia as the nation’s top diplomat.
Tillerson is due to visit Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing later this week.
Taiwan is expected to be a major topic of discussion at both the summit between Trump and Xi, as well as Tillerson’s visit to Beijing, the Beacon said.
The Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday said it had “no comment” about the reports.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲) told the Chinese-language Apple Daily that while she welcomes arms sales to Taiwan, Taipei should nevertheless have the autonomy to choose what to purchase rather than accepting wholesale what the US has to offer.
Taiwan has the capability to manufacture on its own some of the arms that Washington has sold it in the past, Lu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said it is key that Taipei has a clear idea about what arms it needs and what the US can offer.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS