US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has turned down an appeal from US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain to disinvite China from next year’s Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercises in Hawaii.
Carter said in a letter to McCain that the exercises help “demonstrate US leadership and determination to all maritime powers in the region, including China.”
The US House of Representatives in May added an amendment to a bill authorizing the US military budget for next year stipulating that if the US Department of Defense invited China to participate in RIMPAC, a similar invitation had to be extended to Taiwan.
That bill is now being considered by a conference committee before being sent to US President Barack Obama for his signature.
Capitol Hill insiders say that it is unlikely the amendment to include Taiwan in the drills will survive. Nevertheless, in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2016 being considered by the committee, clause 1257 requires the defense department to invite Taiwan to RIMPAC if China is invited.
RIMPAC is the largest international maritime warfare exercise in the world and the People’s Liberation Army Navy took part for the first time last summer.
The Ministry of National Defense in Taipei has said that it would welcome such an invitation.
McCain and US Senator Jack Reed, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Carter earlier this year saying they had learned the US Pacific Fleet had invited China to next year’s RIMPAC.
“We think this decision is misguided,” they said.
“Given the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] provocative actions in the East and South China seas, our government should be considering policy options that impose costs on China’s disruptive behavior, not reward it,” they said.
In his reply — leaked to the “Breaking Defense” Web site — Carter said that China was “engaging in some conduct that is causing us to respond and to draw closer to the many allies and partners that share our concern.”
However, he refused to disinvite China because RIMPAC allows participants “to exercise key operational practices and procedures that are essential to ensuring that tactical misunderstandings do not escalate into crisis,” he said.
“I am closely monitoring events in the South China Sea and may modify our defense engagement decisions based on evolving circumstances,” he said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS