The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is hosting a series of events this month to mark Security Cooperation Month as part of a year-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
AIT has assigned a theme to each month of this year to highlight aspects of the bilateral partnership.
“For decades, the United States and Taiwan have enjoyed a deep and robust security cooperation relationship,” AIT said in a statement yesterday.
The AIT@40 Security Cooperation Month is a “recognition of the multifaceted nature of the security cooperation activities that benefit both Taiwan and the United States,” it said.
The first of this month’s events is to be the screening on Monday of The Lost Black Cats, a documentary about the Black Cat Squadron (黑貓中隊), formally known as the 35th Squadron of the Republic of China Air Force, which flew U-2 surveillance planes over China from 1961 to 1974 on intelligence-gathering missions.
Over more than 200 missions, 12 of the planes were shot down and 10 pilots were killed.
AIT Director Brent Christensen is to give a policy address on security cooperation at an exhibition to open in Taoyuan on Aug. 14 titled “Strong Foundation, Bright Future: AIT@40, U.S.-Taiwan Relations Since 1979.”
On Aug. 15, he is to speak at the opening ceremony of the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in Taipei.
“Throughout the month, Director Christensen and AIT staff will also participate in a variety of events across Taiwan to celebrate the wide-ranging security cooperation relationship that spans far beyond arms sales and includes civilian-led security efforts, civil-military engagement, military exchanges and defense industry cooperation,” the AIT said.
Security Cooperation Month comes after the US Department of State on July 8 announced a US$2.22 billion arms package to Taiwan that includes 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks, 250 Stinger missiles and related equipment, via contractors Raytheon Missile Systems Co and General Dynamics Land Systems.
The US government is still mulling Taiwan’s plan to buy 66 F-16V jets.
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:
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