US Senator Dianne Feinstein on Thursday asserted that the US is under no legal obligation to defend Taiwan and fingered President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as the person who is rocking the boat in cross-strait relations.
According to the Mercury News, Feinstein, a Democrat, told the audience at the annual conference of the Committee of 100 in San Francisco on Thursday that the US has no duty to defend Taiwan if it provokes China into a military confrontation.
The Committee of 100 is a nonprofit organization whose membership make-up is predominantly Chinese-American business and cultural leaders.
"It is important to point out a common misconception -- nowhere does the TRA explicitly require the US to go to war with the mainland over Taiwan," the California Senator was quoted as saying by the Mercury News.
Feinstein is known for her generally favorable stance toward China. Her family are long-time friends of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
Her remarks came against the backdrop of Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) visit in Washington Thursday. US President George W. Bush met with Hu and discussed a wide range of issues including Taiwan.
Taiwanese-American groups were upset at Feinstein's remarks.
"I'm disappointed that a US senator has misinterpreted the law," Kuor Hsin Chang of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) was quoted as saying by the Mercury News.
While declining to comment on Feinstein's remarks, an official from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco said Taiwan wishes to maintain peace and is not in a position to provoke anyone to go to war for Taiwan, said the Mercury News.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Feinstein also called on Beijing to remove the hundreds of missiles it has aimed at Taiwan.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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