US Congressional Subcommittee on Asia chairman Steve Chabot is hoping to meet with former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) late next week.
It will be the strongest show of US political support for Chen to date.
Chabot, a major backer of Taiwan in the US Congress, is scheduled to leave for Asia this weekend, visiting South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
He is trying to make arrangements to meet Chen next Friday.
“I believe that former president Chen Shui-bian has been incarcerated long enough,” said Chabot, a founding member of the Taiwan caucus.
“The humanitarian thing to do would be to let Chen go home,” he said. “However many years he has left, he should be able to spend that time with his family.”
Answering questions about Chen following a meeting of the Asia subcommittee on Thursday, Chabot said: “Keeping him in prison for a day longer is unnecessary, wrongheaded and inhumane.”
“He should be returned home at this point,” he said.
Chabot said the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had sent him copies of the charges against Chen and the court judgement in his case.
“I read them. I read the reports and they didn’t change my mind at all,” Chabot said.
“Chen has been incarcerated far too long,” he said. “As far as I am concerned, I think it amounts to the criminalization of politics.”
“I am not justifying or condoning what President Chen was accused of, but whatever he did he has been in jail far too long, especially when you consider his physical and mental condition at this time,” Chabot said. “The humanitarian thing to do is to allow him to go home and be with his family.”
“I would hope that Taiwan, being a humanitarian country, a good ally, a strong ally of the United States and generally doing the right thing, does the right thing in this case too,” he said.
The Congressman refused to say what action he would take if the Ma administration continues to refuse to grant Chen medical parole.
However, Chabot is deeply and emotionally committed to helping Chen and two political sources close to him said that he would not let the case drop and was prepared to take further action.
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