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.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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