While no lasting damage appears to have been done to US-Taiwan relations, there is lingering anger among senior Washington officials over the unauthorized raising of the Republic of China (ROC) flag at Twin Oaks.
“Nobody likes to be taken for granted,” US National Security Council Senior Director for Asian affairs Evan Medeiros said this week.
Medeiros, top Asia adviser to US President Barack Obama, was answering a question on US-Taiwan relations at a think tank conference on Wednesday.
Photo: AFP
He chose not to answer the specific question, but rather used it as a platform to make comments for the record.
Breaking a long-established understanding, Taiwanese Representative to the US Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) raised the ROC flag at a New Year’s Day ceremony at Twin Oaks, the large Washington estate where ROC ambassadors lived until the US broke diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1978.
The US was not informed in advance, and Beijing lodged strong protests when it discovered the ceremony — widely reported by Taiwanese media — had taken place.
One of the clear conditions governing the unofficial US-Taiwan relationship is that the ROC flag will not be flown at Twin Oaks.
Soon after the incident, the US Department of State said that it was “disappointed” by the move and earlier this week a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official in Taipei confirmed that bilateral talks on the subject are ongoing.
The MOFA official said that ties remained strong and were based on a low-profile “surprise-free” policy.
Medeiros was asked if US-Taiwan relations would be impacted by the election of New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and by Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) reopening of the party’s China Affairs Committee.
Largely ignoring the question, he instead chose to make what were interpreted by many in the audience as thinly veiled comments about the flag-raising.
Medeiros was speaking at a conference organized by the Brookings Institution on US-Australian relations.
He said the US had an unofficial relationship with Taiwan and that this was something he had worked on “very closely” since his first day with the White House.
Medeiros said the unofficial relationship was robust and productive, and that although there were occasional rough patches, both sides had always been able to ride out storms.
In what was generally taken by the audience as a reference to the flag-raising, he added that the relationship had gone through a difficult period and that he hoped both sides could move past it.
Nevertheless, he thought the US-Taiwan relationship was fundamentally solid.
A number of Washington sources later told the Taipei Times that senior Obama administration officials remained angry about the flag-raising incident.
The sources said that the anger tended to be directed toward Taiwanese officials in Washington, rather than towards Taipei.
They said that Shen had recently acted to stem the anger, and the situation had improved.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
PLANNED: The suspect visited the crime scene before the killings, seeking information on how to access the roof, and had extensively researched a 2014 stabbing incident The suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei on Friday had planned the assault and set fires at other locations earlier in the day, law enforcement officials said yesterday. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) said the suspect, a 27-year-old man named Chang Wen (張文), began the attacks at 3:40pm, first setting off smoke bombs on a road, damaging cars and motorbikes. Earlier, Chang Wen set fire to a rental room where he was staying on Gongyuan Road in Zhongzheng District (中正), Chang Jung-hsin said. The suspect later threw smoke grenades near two exits
RSS