Kurt Campell — the major US diplomat dealing with Taiwan relations — has resigned as assistant US secretary of state for East Asia.
His departure on Friday was not unexpected — he signaled months ago that he planned to leave at the end of US President Barack Obama’s first term. A replacement has not been named and Campbell’s highly respected deputy Joe Yun — one of the highest-ranking Korean-Americans in the US government — is taking over on a temporary basis.
The development was first reported on Friday night by Chris Nelson in his privately distributed Nelson Report.
According to well-informed sources, the White House has suggested National Security Council director for Japan, South Korea and North Korea Daniel Russel as Campbell’s permanent replacement. However, those sources say that US Secretary of State John Kerry is still considering others.
Other possibles are said to include Harvard professor Joe Nye; former US ambassador to South Korea Kathy Stephens; former Department of State official Susan Shirk; former American Institute in Taiwan chief Richard Bush; Senate Foreign Relations staffer Michael Schiffer; and Frank Januzzi, head of Amnesty International’s Washington office.
A Department of State source said that he did not know what Campbell was planning on doing next. Campbell could not be reached for comment. The source said that Campbell had simply informed Kerry that he had decided to return to private life.
“Assistant Secretary Campbell played an instrumental role in leading the Department’s efforts to reorient American priorities to the Asia-Pacific as part of the strategic rebalance to maintain and deepen relations in the region,” the State Department said in a statement.
At a conference last month, Campbell joked about his career at the department ending soon by saying that when he arrived for work that morning there was a delivery truck in his parking space. He added that workmen had been told that his office was empty.
Later he said that he expected to find a big black crow on his office windowsill.
Campbell has been extremely popular and Asian experts in Washington are almost unanimous in their praise of his diplomatic abilities.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS