The recent visit by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt was a timely stabilizer for cross-strait relations in light of the recent political woes surrounding Taiwan' s leadership, analysts said yesterday.
Burghardt met with President Chen Shui-bian (
Analysts agreed that Burghardt's visit to Taiwan at this particular juncture had a stabilizing effect on cross-strait relations, especially with regard to US interests.
"The US envoy's visit gave Taiwan a confidence boost. It was to ensure that Taiwan was not weakened internally in its defense capability, which could give Bei-jing an opening that it could exploit," said Alexander Huang (
Huang added though that the US State Department's statement on its Web site lauding Chen' s reiteration of the "four noes" was also meant to tie Chen's hands and keep him true to his word.
Lo Chih-cheng (
"The courtesy call by Burghardt to President Chen at this critical time signified that the US still regards Chen as the legitimate leader of Taiwan," Lo said.
Lo noted that an issue that should be given important attention is that Burghardt raised concerns about the fate of the special defense budget and whether Taiwan cares about its own national self-defense.
The US envoy had expressed that notwithstanding the opposition parties' call to initiate either a presidential recall or to dissolve the Cabinet, these considerations should not impede the review of the special defense budget in the legislature, Lo said.
As for whether the "US' factor" could sway public opinion against recalling the president, Huang said he saw no connection between the two, adding that the momentum to recall Chen would be based on the results of the legal investigation on the alleged involvement of Chen's family in a series of corruption scandals.
Lo said that as current evidence was primarily circumstantial, including allegations about first lady Wu Shu-chen (
"If the recall motion is just based on rumors, it would be hard to justify it," Lo said.
He commented that pursuing a recall motion would demonstrate poor political judgment on the part of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) if it were not legally grounded.
"Ma once said he has one single bullet and therefore he doesn't want to pull the trigger too early as he could miss his target. But it seemed that the bullet has already been shot too early," Lo said.
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