The US does not consider an improvement in Taiwan’s relationship with China something that might harm Taiwan-US relations, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokesman Mark Zimmer said yesterday, adding that: “We believe they can all proceed in parallel.”
In response to reporters’ questions regarding cross-strait relations in general, Zimmer said the US continues to support the strengthening and deepening of the relationship as long as it is done in a way agreeable to people on both sides.
“There is no inverse effect or negative effect on the US-Taiwan relationship as the cross-strait relationship progresses as long as things happen in a way that is acceptable to people on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait,” Zimmer said.
Zimmer yesterday answered questions from the press after delivering opening remarks in which he said that the US government remains committed to its strategic policy of “rebalancing” toward Asia.
The policy is still going strong, Zimmer said.
“It’s not dead. The rebalancing is something we are very focused on and it remains a priority for the [US] president,” he added.
“It’s important to note that Taiwan has a role in the strategy,” Zimmer said, reiterating statements made earlier this year by US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who in a speech last month praised the signing of a fishery agreement between Taiwan and Japan.
Zimmer said the US also commends Taiwan for its contributions to the international community in the areas of disaster response, science, health and pandemic preparedness, citing as examples the assistance Taiwan delivered to the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan last year and the two Taiwanese doctors sent to Nigeria to help fight Ebola amid the outbreak in west Africa.
Asked how US government officials have responded to leaders of the Sunflower movement, who asked the US government to drop its “one China” policy during a recent visit to the US, Zimmer said he needed to check further on the outcome of their meetings in Washington.
However, the AIT spokesman stressed that Washington’s “one China” policy “isn’t changing and won’t change in the near future.”
“I certainly wouldn’t expect that our one China policy is going to change any time soon. It’s quite set,” he said.
Asked about the US’ views on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) desire to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Zimmer said that was an issue for Taiwan and China to work out, not for the US to decide.
Meanwhile, Zimmer said that a contract dispute that arose last year between US-based Weston Solutions Inc, the contractor for the AIT’s Neihu project, and Taiwanese subcontractors has been resolved, adding that the office compound is scheduled to open in the second half of next year.
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
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
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