President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged Washington to provide more assistance to Taiwan’s submarine program, which has seen little progress in the past 11 years.
During a meeting with American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt, Ma said he hoped the US would help Taiwan as it continues to pursue its submarine program through a combination of indigenous development and imports.
Ma expressed his affirmation of the stable relations between the two nations in light of events since Burghardt’s last visit in September.
On collaborations in regional security, Ma said that Taiwan’s efforts include US$18.3 billion worth of US weapons imports. The US government last year also signed into law the Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2013 that made possible the sale of two Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates to Taiwan.
The sale of the frigates underline the importance of Taiwan’s security in the eyes of the US government, he said.
The president said he was delighted to see trade being fostered between Taiwan and the US, with the US last year surpassing Japan to become Taiwan’s second-largest trading partner. Over the same period, Taiwan also surpassed Saudi Arabia and India to become the US’ 10th-largest trading partner.
Ma thanked Washington for its support, and said that Taiwan’s chances of participating in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty are expected to improve as the trade bloc gains political traction.
The Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talks two years ago have made further dialogue possible and Taiwan will continue to seek to expand bilateral investment and collaborative efforts in electronic commerce with the US, Ma said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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