China yesterday responded angrily as Taiwan confirmed the first meeting in more than four decades between senior Taiwanese and US security officials.
National Security Council Secretary-General David Lee (李大維) met White House National Security Adviser John Bolton earlier this month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Saturday.
The Central News Agency said the meeting was the first since Taipei and Washington ended formal diplomatic relations in 1979.
“China is extremely dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to this,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) told a daily news briefing, adding that Beijing was against any form of official exchanges between the US and Taiwan.
The diplomatic ties between Beijing and Washington have become increasingly strained in recent weeks due to an escalating trade dispute, US support for Taiwan and China’s military posture in the South China Sea, where the US also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.
The rare meeting is viewed in Taiwan as a sign of support from US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The meeting took place during Lee’s visit to the US from May 13 to Tuesday last week.
“During the trip, together with US government officials, Secretary-General Lee met with representatives from our diplomatic allies, reiterating support and commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the statement said.
The ministry and the American Institute in Taiwan yesterday declined to comment.
Beijing regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue in ties with the US, which has no formal ties with Taiwan, but is its main source of arms.
The US has in recent months increased the frequency of patrols through the strategic Taiwan Strait despite opposition from China.
China has been ramping up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its sovereignty, conducting drills near Taiwan and snatching its few remaining diplomatic allies.
Earlier this month, the US House of Representatives backed legislation supporting Taiwan as members of the US Congress pushed for a sharper approach to relations with Beijing.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS