Unguarded comments about Taiwan have entered the flap surrounding Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s controversial remarks on low-income Americans and the dangers of a Palestinian state.
The Romney quotes — largely unreported by the US media — seem to reflect a pessimistic view of Taiwan’s future, with little strategic thought or planning.
Answering a question about the possibility of an independent Palestinian State, Romney said: “You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem.”
“We live with that in China and Taiwan,” Romney continued. “All right, we have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it. And we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don’t go to war to try and resolve it imminently.”
The remarks were made at a private off-the-record fundraising dinner in Florida nearly four months ago.
Someone at the dinner secretly videotaped Romney and the damaging tape was released this week.
The US press first concentrated on the Republican candidate’s comments that Palestinians “have no interest” in peace with Israel.
However, yesterday newspaper front pages were dominated by Romney’s further remarks on the videotape that nearly half of Americans receive government benefits and do not pay federal income taxes.
He said that he “doesn’t worry about those people” and that they see themselves as victims.
The incident could severely damage the Romney campaign and according to the New York Times has given the Democrats new ammunition to claim he is out of touch with the needs and values of the middle class.
Polls are already reflecting a drop in support for the Republican candidate.
In the midst of this political furor, Romney’s words about Taiwan were overlooked. However, by Wednesday night in Washington, Capitol Hill was beginning to take notice. Republican sources close to the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee said they were “disappointed” that Romney had no strategy for dealing with Taiwan’s future, but was simply waiting for something to happen.
“We would have expected Romney to have a more proactive and forward-leaning approach,” Formosa Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) official Coen Blaauw said. “The preservation of Taiwan’s democracy and right to self-determination is essential to US geostrategic interests.”
“It’s not enough to kick the ball down the field and hope that someday the problem will resolve itself,” Blaauw said. “Previous statements from his campaign signaled a preference for taking a stronger stance against China in general and against military aggression in particular.”
The Republican Party platform — largely written by Romney advisers — opposes any unilateral steps by either side to alter the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait on the principle that all issues regarding the island’s future must be resolved peacefully, through dialogue and be agreeable to the people of Taiwan.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS