The US has made it clear to China that it should stop coercion and resume dialogue with Taiwan, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday, after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday last week reasserted that China has the right to use force against Taiwan.
“The United States has a deep and abiding interest in cross-strait peace and stability. Any resolution of cross-strait differences must be peaceful and based on the will of the people on both sides,” AIT spokeswoman Amanda Mansour told local media when asked to comment on Xi’s speech.
“The United States has made clear to Beijing that it should stop its coercion and resume dialogue with the democratically elected administration on Taiwan,” she said, without giving further details.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“As we have said many times before, Taiwan is a democratic success story, a reliable partner and a force for good in the world,” she added.
The AIT represents US interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.
Mansour’s comments came after US National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis on Monday supported Taiwan in a tweet.
Xi on Wednesday last week gave an speech commemorating the 40th anniversary of China’s “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan.”
Xi said that China would be willing to talk with any party in Taiwan to push forward the process of peaceful unification on the basis of the “one China” principle.
However, “we make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option of taking all necessary means” to that end, Xi said.
China would not target compatriots in Taiwan, but focus on the interference of external forces, as well as the small number of Taiwanese independence activists, he added.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday on Twitter expressed her gratitude to the US for its support.
“I thank the #AIT for supporting democracy & the democratically-elected government in #Taiwan. To those who #SpeakUpForTaiwan, thank you!” Tsai tweeted.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS