Randy Forbes, chairman of the US House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower, accused US President Barack Obama’s administration of forcing Taiwan to “endure a range of humiliations and difficulties — all for fear of antagonizing China.”
Forbes, who is also co-chairman of the Congressional China Caucus, said US leaders are insisting on a series of petty and counterproductive policies toward Taiwan that do nothing to enhance US interests or regional security.
Forbes said that China’s “much-touted” motto of a “peaceful rise” has been exposed as a hollow slogan.
“Other nations in the region, from long-standing allies like Australia and Japan to former foe Vietnam, are clamoring for a strong US response and tighter military ties with America,” Forbes said.
In a statement published this week by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes said that under US government regulations, no US military officer over the rank of colonel or navy captain can visit Taiwan, “a country that America is required by law to supply with advanced weaponry.”
He said that Taiwan’s president and other senior government officials are prohibited from traveling to Washington for meetings with their US counterparts.
“Tales abound of Taiwanese officers arriving for training at US facilities in khaki pants and polo shirts, much to the surprise of their US colleagues — who understandably wonder why representatives of a trusted military partner are restricted from wearing their nation’s uniform,” Forbes said.
He added that even midshipmen at Taiwan’s naval academy are forbidden from making port calls in Hawaii or Guam on their post-graduation training cruise.
“These indignities inflicted on a friendly nation are petty, but they reveal a larger truth about US relations with China,” Forbes said.
He said that US policymakers have consistently responded with “meek acquiescence” to Beijing’s hypersensitivity about matters ranging from Taiwan to Tibet, religious freedom and the persecution of ethnic minorities.
“Rather than eliciting appreciation from China, the US has only emboldened Beijing and undermined our allies’ confidence that the US is willing to uphold regional stability and international norms,” he said.
Forbes said that US policy toward Taiwan should reflect US strategic interests, Taiwan’s decades of security cooperation with the US and Taiwan’s march toward multi-party democracy — not inordinate fears of offending Chinese leaders.
“The US should not only drop demeaning restrictions on bilateral relations, but further integrate Taiwan’s military into the US regional security architecture,” he said.
Forbes said he believes the US should invite Taiwan to participate in critical joint military exercises such as the US Air Force’s Red Flag, which is open to numerous US allies with capabilities similar to Taiwan’s.
“Participation in prestigious US exercises would enhance Taiwan’s self-defense and signal America’s enduring commitment to our regional partners,” he said.
He acknowledged that the US and Taiwan recently increased military cooperation in areas including the sharing of advanced radar data, practicing to repair damaged runways and coordinating humanitarian assistance missions.
“[However], the US remains far too reticent about permitting Taiwanese engagement in high-profile, capability-enhancing endeavors,” he said.
Forbes said that decades of experience have taught him that Beijing does not respond positively when the US is perceived as weak.
“By forcing Taiwan to endure small-scale humiliations and denying it the training it critically needs, Washington has given Beijing effective veto power over America’s defense relationships in East Asia,” he said. “The US should show China that America will stand firmly with its friends and behind the longstanding US-led international order in the Asia-Pacific.”
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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