Taiwan should put more resources in "offensive" instead of "defensive" strategies in expanding the country's foreign relations, said Secretary-General of the National Security Council (NSC) Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) in a closed-door talk yesterday.
"Personally I relatively favor an offensive foreign policy. This doesn't mean that we should quarrel or fight with others. What I meant to say is if Taiwan sticks to an defensive strategy when dealing to other states, it would be a very hard job," Chiou told a roomful of diplomats at the foreign ministry yesterday.
Although Taipei has urged others to treat Taiwan as an equal at various meetings under APEC, the country's setback at the APEC summit last year indicated that to stick to a defensive tactic at the diplomatic front was not enough, Chiou said.
"If we at the time managed to ignite continuous fire [diplomatic efforts] elsewhere, Beijing would not have had time to foul us in APEC," Chiou said.
Taiwan was absent from the APEC summit in Shanghai last year after China refused to extend an invitation to former vice president Li Yuan-tzu (
But Chiou also cautioned his audience to adopt delicate measures to pursue such an offensive foreign policy.
"As long as our operational techniques in pursuing this offensive strategy are not crude nor going too far, this pursuit would do us little harm indeed," Chiou said.
Taiwan's offensive efforts in expanding ties with Mongolia recently, as well as its success in pushing the European Parliament to pass pro-Taiwan resolutions, have created pressures for Beijing, Chiou claimed.
Chiou also warned foreign ministry officials to avoid dropping points when moving offensively at the diplomatic front.
"For instance, the US ... cautioned us all day long not to facilitate President Chen's visit to Washington DC. And of course we got the message here," Chiou said, adding that any move by Taipei to push this matter further could backfire diplomatically.
It is the US longstanding practice not to allow the top five Taiwanese officials -- the president, vice president, premier, foreign minister and the defense minister -- to visit the US.
Chiou also suggested that the foreign ministry should develop a comprehensive brand-new project requiring political appointees in each ministry to conduct work-related overseas visits "at least once a year."
In the case of China, 54 high-ranking government officials have conducted 141 overseas visits embarking on the soil of some 86 countries from January to the end of June, Chiou said.
All of the seven members of China's Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau have already conducted at least one overseas visit during the first six months of this year, the NSC chief added.
"The giant state has tried indeed hard, and we should not lag behind," he said.
Chiou's talk took place at the foreign ministry yesterday afternoon and served as part of the one-week seminars for the nations's representatives to Spain, Luxembourg, Argentina, India, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Melbourne and Chicago, Atlanta and Kansas in the US.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS