US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms said Thursday that passage of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act (TSEA) will be one of his committee's top priorities in this year's congressional session.
Outlining his priorities in a speech to a conservative think tank in Washington, Helms blasted outgoing President Bill Clinton for having "repeatedly let down our friends in Taiwan" by going to China and enunciating his so-called "three no's" policy while there, and by failing to supply Taipei with sufficient arms under the Taiwan Relations Act.
"The military balance of power of the past 20 years is quickly shifting in Beijing's favor, and we've got to stop it," he said. "It is imperative that we act quickly [to reverse that trend]," Helms told the American Enterprise Institute.
Beijing "must be made to understand that its avenues to destructive behavior are closed off, and that Taiwan will have the means to defend itself, and we're going to make sure that's done," he said.
Claiming that president-elect George W. Bush during his election campaign "gave his enthusiastic endorsement" to the TSEA, Helms said he intends to work with Bush to enact the measure.
The extent of Bush's backing for TSEA was not clear. While the president-elect's Web site contains statements supporting the legislation, observers could not immediately recall whether Bush voiced support for the measure during the campaign, which quite noticeably sidestepped China as an election issue.
The Republican Party platform, while endorsing greater efforts for Taiwan's security, did not specifically mention the TSEA. Nor was it clear what sort of act Helms would support.
Last year, he introduced a bill that would strengthen direct military ties between the US and Taiwan and called for the Clinton administration to supply Taiwan with a number of specific weapons systems that it had refused to sell.
These included destroyers equipped with the AEGIS anti-missile radar system and diesel submarines.
That bill ran into substantial opposition both in the Senate and from the Clinton administration, and it never made it out of Helms' committee.
A scaled-down version, without the specific weapons systems and calling for a less extensive military relationship, was approved by the House, but died in the Senate.
While Helms, in his speech, appeared to seek an early introduction of a new bill, many observers feel that the Senate would rather hold off introduction of the legislation to give the lawmakers and the administration time to first work on less controversial measures.
Meanwhile, the US State Department's top Asia policymaker has expressed serious concerns over the course of cross-strait relations, citing misunderstandings on both sides, and saying both Taipei and Beijing must alter their positions to allow talks to resume.
"I am worried about the prospects for cross-strait relations," Stanley Roth, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a breakfast meeting of the Asia Society in Washington.
"The reason I am worried is because I believe neither side fundamentally understands the other."
Roth faulted Beijing for continuing to view the DPP in terms of its traditional pro-independence policies and trying to avoid dealing with the party by adopting a "very clumsy" united front approach.
If progress is to be made, he said, Beijing "has no choice but to deal with the current authorities in Taiwan, and to undertake any initiatives directly with them, not around them."
Roth also slammed Taipei for its misperceptions of Beijing's thinking. "It isn't clear to me that the new government in Taiwan fully understands the sensitivities of the cross-strait issues on the mainland side," he said. "There is still a tendency to believe that economic issues can outweigh political issues."
The Chen government sees the opening of the "small three links" as a "trial balloon" for the three big links of full trade, postal and transportation exchanges, he noted. But this "seems to ignore the fact that the mainland is unlikely to play this game until it has persuaded itself that Taiwan is willing to abide by what Beijing calls the `one China' principle."
Roth described recent statements by Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) as "positive developments," saying they "certainly leave room for compromise."
Qian has repeated several times since early last year that both Taiwan and the mainland are parts of China.
Despite this, "it isn't clear to me that either side is actually prepared at this moment to engage and to reach agreement to resume cross-strait dialogue based on this formula," Roth said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique