China’s continued saber rattling toward Taiwan will not be successful, but will only trigger resentment among Taiwanese, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said on Saturday.
“I do not know whether you feel the same as I do. I believe that China doing so will have almost no effect, but will only stir up resentment among Taiwanese,” Yen told a forum on national security strategy organized by Tamkang University to mark the second anniversary of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration today.
The ever-changing international situation poses risky challenges for Taiwan, Yen said.
Photo: CNA
“The complex situation on the Korean Peninsula, in which the US, Japan, China and Russia are also involved, will indirectly affect the situation across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
“In the disputed waters of the South China Sea, China’s deployment of anti-ship and surface-to-air missile systems on the Yongshu Reef [永暑島, Fiery Cross Reef] and Jhubi Reef [渚碧礁, Subi Reef] has reflected its ambition in the region, posing a threat and challenge to Taiwan’s security,” Yen added.
China’s removal of a two-term limit on the presidency will effectively allow Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to remain in power for life, making him a strongman capable of exerting greater pressure on Taiwan, Yen said.
At a time when China has been stepping up its military intimidation toward Taiwan, while offering more incentives to attract Taiwanese businesses, professionals and students to go to China, Taiwan faces tremendous risks in negotiating Beijing’s “carrot and stick” approach, he said.
As long as Taiwan upholds its core democratic values, the nation would win recognition from other nations in the region due to its strategic location, he said.
“Taiwan’s military is absolutely capable of defending the nation while facing various challenges,” Yen added.
Liya Chu (朱如茵), whose parents are New York-based Taiwanese restaurateurs, has been crowned the champion of US television cooking competition MasterChef Junior, after wowing the judges, including celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, with a feast of fusion cuisine. In the finale of the show’s eighth season, broadcast on Thursday, Chu walked away with US$100,000 after serving a spread of spiced duck breast with scallion pancakes and miso eggplant, followed by coconut pandan panna cotta with a passion fruit coulis and sesame tuille. Chu, who was 10 years old at the time of filming three years ago, faced off against then-11-year-old Grayson Price from
A university student has gained the spotlight for an interactive map he designed detailing all of China’s military bases and installations throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Soochow University music student Joseph Wen (溫約瑟), who calls himself an amateur military enthusiast, said he created the map to “help people better understand the cross-strait situation.” Wen originally posted the map online on June 14 last year, but it gained greater attention after he mentioned it during an appearance on a China Television talk show. On the show, Wen said he had gathered information on the locations from publicly available Web sites, as
GLOBAL STRATEGY: Indo-Pacific alliances need reinforcement to prevent Chinese occupation of Taiwan, which would threaten Japan, Hawaii and Australia, Pompeo said The US should officially recognize Taiwan as a free, independent nation and establish official diplomatic ties, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington on Friday. Every US president since Harry Truman has considered Taiwan’s existence to be of utmost importance to US national security, Pompeo said. Taiwan is a principal US partner in technology and economic matters, and if China were to capture Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain, it would severely hamper the US economy, Pompeo said. Should China occupy Taiwan, it would severely weaken US influence in the Indo-Pacific region and its surrounding areas,
Opening-day ticket sales for a horror exhibition at the Tainan Art Museum were suspended twice on Saturday as the show attracted too many visitors. Titled “Ghosts and Hells: The Underworld in Asian art,” the exhibition runs until Oct. 16. It is the local version of a show that debuted at the Musee du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris. It was planned and curated by Julien Rousseau. The Tainan museum said that within an hour of its doors opening, more than 1,000 people had entered the exhibition. By noon, 3,000 physical and virtual tickets had been sold, while the museum had more than 4,000
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