Reuters news agency has apologized to Taiwan over a misunderstanding stemming from last week’s interview with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), during which she was asked about the possibility of another telephone call with US President Donald Trump, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) said yesterday.
In the interview, which was published on Thursday with the headline “Taiwan president says phone call with Trump can take place again,” Reuters quoted Tsai as saying that “we don’t exclude the opportunity to call President Trump himself, but it depends on the needs of the situation and the US government’s consideration of regional affairs.”
Trump, in a Reuters interview published on Friday with the headline “Trump spurns Taiwan president’s suggestion of another phone call,” said that he does not want to create problems for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) when Beijing appears to be helping efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
Trump’s response has been described as a “slap in the face” to Tsai, and some Taiwanese have criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which arranged the interview, as having poor judgement and allowing itself to be “set up” by the news agency.
Some Democratic Progressive Party members accused Reuters of misinterpreting Tsai’s words, as she gave the interview in Mandarin, while others suggested that the agency had been bought off by China to set up Tsai’s apparent “humiliation” by Trump.
In response to media queries, Lee said Reuters had submitted a list of questions in advance, but the one about a possible repeat of the telephone call between Tsai and Trump was not on the list.
After the interview, Reuters expressed its regrets and apologized to the ministry, Lee said.
He said Reuters officials told the ministry that they “feel embarrassed,” saying the agency’s Asian bureau was unaware its Washington bureau had scheduled an interview with Trump right after the one with Tsai.
Asked about the matter during a legislative hearing, the minister said although the question was raised unexpectedly, Tsai’s answer was well-considered and circumspect.
He said Washington was concerned over Tsai’s comment about the possibility of calling Trump until the ministry provided them with a full transcript of the interview.
Tsai called Trump on Dec. 2 last year, less than a month after his election as US president, to offer her congratulations, the first known contact of its kind since the two nations severed diplomatic ties in 1979.
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
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
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS