While China insisted that it was not involved in the Gambia’s decision to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, lawmakers yesterday demanded that the government review President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policy of “flexible diplomacy” and take precautions to prevent a domino effect in the wake of the incident.
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced on Thursday that diplomatic relations with Taiwan would be severed with immediate effective.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said in response to media queries, said that Beijing was caught unaware by the move and that China was not in contact with the Gambia.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
In Taipei, politicians across party lines cast doubt on the effectiveness of Ma’s policy of “flexible diplomacy” that underpinned the nation’s “diplomatic truce” with China.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) issued a three-point statement saying that the incident demonstrated the failure of Ma’s policy of “flexible diplomacy” and that the government must immediately engage in crisis management to prevent a domino effect.
The DPP demanded that the government explain in detail why the Gambia cut the ties and that officials in charge of national security and diplomatic affairs resign.
The party also asked Ma to shift his policy away from managing cross-strait relations as a priority to focusing on foreign policy and issues of international and regional concerns.
Meanwhile, government officials, Presidential Office Secretary-General Timothy Yang (楊進添), Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and Deputy Vice Foreign Minister Simon Ko (柯森耀), all said that the incident could be attributed more to Jammeh’s “personal characteristics” than either China or Ma’s policy.
Jammeh did not give any reason as to why it has also withdrawn from the Commonwealth after 48 years and that the UK was also in the dark, they said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) asked the government to be vigilant about relationships with El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, saying that all are in danger.
The government should terminate aid projects, which are being implemented in the Gambia, DPP Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) said.
According to DPP Legislator Liu Chao-Hao (劉櫂豪), the aid projects for the Gambia in next year’s government budget were valued at NT$400 million (US$13.5 million).
Jiang did not take the advice, saying that the government would only end the projects — including in the areas of medicine and construction and agriculture — if it fails to retain relations with the Gambia.
Should the government fail to retain ties, about 200 Gambian students studying in Taiwan under scholarship schemes run by the government will not face immediate deportation to the Gambia, Jiang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), an outspoken supporter of “flexible diplomacy,” said the government has to get to the bottom of the situation of whether China broke the tacit agreement that underpinned the policy of “flexible diplomacy.”
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS