The Pentagon has confirmed that it did not agree to consult with China about sales of weapons to Taiwan when US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel met with Chinese Minister of Defense General Chang Wanquan (常萬全) in Washington in August.
Following the meeting, Chinese official Guan Youfei (關友飛) announced that Hagel had agreed with Chang’s proposal that the US and the PRC establish a joint task force on the issue of arms sales.
“I believe it is a bad idea for the United States to invite aggressive powers into consultations on the security of America’s treaty allies or partners for whom the US has statutory security commitments,” US Representative Michael McCaul said in a letter to Hagel.
“I ask that you confirm that the US is fully committed to the defense of Taiwan and does not consult with China about sales of weapons to Taiwan, and that you affirm that we don’t have a policy of self-restraint on weapons sales to Taiwan,” McCaul said in the letter.
In a reply released on Friday, US Undersecretary of Defense James Miller said the US government’s approach to Taiwan was founded on the three joint US-China Communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
“This approach has been a constant for eight US administrations and will not change,” Miller said.
“As a matter of policy, and consistent with previous assurances we have given to Taiwan, the United States does not consult with China prior to a decision to sell arms to Taiwan, and did not agree to do so when General Chang met with Secretary Hagel,” Miller said in the letter.
Miller said that the administration of US President Barack Obama would continue to make defense articles and services available to Taiwan in such quantity as may be necessary for Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.
“The Department of Defense views support to Taiwan as consistent with both the TRA and with US security interests to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” Miller said.
Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) President Mark Kao (高龍榮) said he was pleased with the Pentagon’s letter, which showed that the Chinese side had tried to give a “false impression” after the Chang-Hagel meeting.
“As Taiwanese-Americans we are happy to have so many good friends in [the US] Congress who are supportive of Taiwan,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching