Security arrangements at the new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) compound will be the same as at its current location, a spokesperson for the US Department of State said on Thursday.
Since the de facto US embassy inaugurated its new building complex in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) on June 12, there have been news reports that US Marines could be deployed at the facility, in accordance with standard US practice at its embassies around the world.
In the wake of reports that the US Department of State asked the Pentagon to deploy a detachment of US Marines to Taiwan to help provide security at the AIT, CNN on Thursday cited US officials as saying that the request had been rejected due to resource constraint issues and not out of fear of irritating Beijing.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The decision was made by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis last month, CNN reported, citing one defense official, who said that before the request was rejected, military planners had anticipated the US Marines would arrive in Taiwan as early as next month.
Asked about the report, the US Department of State said in a statement e-mailed to the media: “As is the practice at AIT’s current location, a small number of American personnel detailed to AIT along with a larger number of locally-hired employees will provide security for the new office building in cooperation with local authorities.”
The AIT has yet to move to the compound from its current address in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義).
“We do not discuss specific security matters concerning the protection of our facility or personnel,” the statement said, reiterating the US’ commitment to its “one China” policy, based on the three US-China joint communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan declined to comment on the matter, saying: “We do not discuss the operational details or the internal deliberations related to specific security matters concerning the protection of our facilities or personnel.”
‘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
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
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
RSS