A senior White House official hopes that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will not cite the principle of "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait or use other provocative language in his inauguration speech to avoid increasing cross-strait tensions, sources say.
Clifford Hart, the director of Chinese affairs at the US National Security Council, was speaking on Thursday at a seminar in Washington on the implications of Taiwan's presidential election, according to sources permitted to witness the presentation.
The press was excluded from the session, which was attended by, among others, officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office and the American Institute in Taiwan.
The use of the phrase "one country on each side" by Chen "would not be helpful" and "provocative phrases ought to be avoided," Hart was quoted by participants as saying.
Hart was also quoted as saying that the Bush administration hoped Chen "does not rule out any options for Taiwan's future."
It would be helpful "if he speaks to the aspirations of the Taiwan people and he lays out what his program is going to be for the next four years," Hart was quoted as saying.
But according to another participant, Hart said that "at the end of the day, [Chen] is a democratically elected president and he can say whatever he wants."
Although Bush administration officials have been consulting with Taiwan's representatives in Washington about the inauguration speech, this is believed to be the first time a senior US official has commented on the speech before a broad audience.
Hart spent much of his presentation discussing China's military threat to Taiwan and warning that it should not be taken lightly. In this, he was repeating the basic position of Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly in testimony before the US House of Representatives International Relations Committee last month.
Hart also reportedly sharply criticized China for threatening to launch an attack on Taiwan and described the military buildup as "outrageous" and "in violation of contemporary international norms."
"We don't like it but we can't ignore it. We expect Taiwan to take this threat seriously," he was quoted as saying.
Overall, Hart played down talk of a split between Taipei and Washington.
"He went to great lengths to say that things are not as bad as some people think," one participant said.
"This is not a fundamentally troubled relationship," Hart was quoted as saying, before going on to stress that the Bush administration was deeply supportive of Taiwan's democracy.
The head of the Pentagon's China desk, Colonel Roy Kamphausen, also spoke to the seminar on an off-the-record basis. The Taipei Times, as a non-participant, did not agree to this condition.
SERIOUS CHALLENGE
Kamphausen complained about a decade-long reduction to Taiwan's defense budget and said he hoped that it would be boosted in the near future, according to audience members.
"This is a serious challenge but not an irreversible one," he was quoted as saying.
Kamphausen, though, put more emphasis on structural and management problems relating to Taiwan's military, rather than on a need for new weapons systems.
"It's not so much the hardware; it's really the software," one participant quoted Kamphausen as saying.
Kamphausen pointed to such requirements as communications, command and electronics systems -- the so-called 4CISR capability -- parochialism within Taiwan's army, navy and air force, issues of transparency, streamlining combat systems and other problems. He also stressed the need for new anti-ballistic missiles and anti-submarine systems and "an active plan for the recruitment and retention of military personnel," one audience member said.
Kamphausen also said he expected that the special defense budget would be approved by the Legislative Yuan.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it