The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday would not confirm a report that the US Department of State has requested that US Marines be posted at the AIT’s new complex in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).
“As is the practice at our current location, a small number of American personnel detailed to AIT along with a larger number of locally-hired employees will provide security for the new office building in cooperation with the local authorities,” an AIT official said in a text message to the Central News Agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A CNN report on Friday cited two unnamed US officials as saying that a request for a US Marine Corps security detachment was received several weeks ago, but has not been formally approved.
Coordination about its deployment is ongoing between the state department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the marines, the sources were cited as saying.
When asked about the matter at a news conference the same day, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) said that Beijing’s “one China” principle is the political foundation of China-US relations, and that Washington should abide by its “one China” pledge and refrain from developing any official ties or engaging in military exchanges with Taiwan.
The AIT office is expected to officially relocate from Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) to the new facility in fall.
Posting marines at the new AIT compound in Taipei would signal warmer relations between the US and Taiwan.
Such a move by the US would carry “more political than military significance,” said Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at National Chung Cheng University’s Institute of Strategic and International Affairs.
Marines are usually posted only at official US facilities overseas, Lin said, adding that a detachment at the new AIT complex could be seen as a show of the importance attached by the US to Taiwan and a political signal to China.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS