The US State Department and Taipei Times sources have contradicted Minister of National Defense Lee Jye's (
"No. There is no change in US policy regarding Taiwan security," the State Department said in a statement responding to a question by Taiwanese reporters about whether the US had suspended military exchanges to retaliate against the failure of the arms deal to make progress.
Sources confirm that a single routine meeting had been postponed, but that the delay was decided before the latest legislative delay in the arms deal and before American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young's comments last week urging quick passage of the arms package.
There was no word as to why the meeting, reportedly a Washington session involving the defense ministry's Armaments Bureau, was delayed.
The sources said that a number of other bilateral military exchanges continue to go on as planned, pointing to reports that a group of senior US defense officials are currently in Taipei on an unannounced visit.
"There is so much going on [militarily between Taiwan and the US]," one source said after discussions with current and former US officials, "that one postponement is just a blip that doesn't represent anything. It is not a symbolic act."
US officials are said to be frustrated over the fate of a NT$6.2 billion supplemental arms bill, but still believe that the measure will be passed by year end. They see the current legislative deadlock as a result of infighting among the pan-blues in advance of the Dec. 9 mayoral elections in Taipei and Kaohsiung, and feel progress will be made on the bill after the ballot.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
After the election, and especially if KMT candidate Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) wins in Taipei, US officials believe "with Soong out to pasture, Ma will be able to get his people together to do something" to get the arms bill passed, according to one source, who requested anonymity.
At his daily press briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reiterated for the third time in a week that Young did not say anything new about US arms policy.
"I wouldn't draw any linkage between the two," McCormack said, referring to Young's comments and the failure of the arms package to make it through the Procedure Committee and onto the Legislative Yuan's agenda.
Observers here believe that Young's remarks on the arms issue last week were aimed beyond the arms bills currently before the Legislative Yuan and at the whole issue of Taiwan's willingness to spend to defend itself.
As for Young's harsh words, "the frustration level [in Washington] is so high that they are willing to say things they would not say in the past," one source said.
Meanwhile, the pro-Taiwan Heritage Foundation warned that stalemate on the arms bill could seriously incapacitate Taiwan.
"The refusal of Taiwan's legislature to move ahead with the arms package is a leading indicator of where Taiwan's politicians see Taiwan's future. There is little sense in America's continued support of Taiwan's defenses if Taiwan has no intention of using them to deter attack by the Chinese,” Heritage Foundation senior research fellow John Tkacik and Asian Studies Center director Michael Needham wrote in a paper about the issue on Tuesday.
KMT leaders “appear to be doing all they can to undermine” Taiwan's security, they said.
“Without a firm commitment to Taiwan's defenses, Taiwanese leaders must understand that their relationship with Beijing becomes one that places exclusive reliance on Beijing's good will,” the paper said. “In any future dialogue between Taipei and Beijing on Taiwan, Taiwan's representatives will be negotiating from a position of weakness.”
“Any `interim agreement' that supposedly puts off `independence' in return for Beijing's guarantee of `no military attack' risks creating an environment where Taiwan's defense needs are taken for granted to the point of unilateral disarmament while Beijing, of course, continues its military expansion,“ the paper said, in apparent reference to proposals Ma made in Washington in March.
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS