US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit Japan and China on her first foreign trip in her new position, with a senior congressional source saying Clinton would be certain to discuss Taiwan with the Chinese leadership.
The source said the discussions would probably lead, on Clinton’s return, to an informal State Department review of US-Taiwan relations.
Last week, professor Robert Sutter of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service said the US should reassess its Taiwan policy and consider what it would do if Taiwan chose to align itself with China.
Sutter said that while President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies had won some progress in cross-strait economic and trade development, there had been no concessions of substance from China on its military, diplomatic or economic policies.
US State Department officials declined to confirm Clinton’s trip to China, but officials said in private that she was “leaning” toward visiting Asia at some point before US President Barack Obama meets Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) at a London summit in April.
The New York Times reported over the weekend on speculation that Clinton would visit Japan and China and possibly South Korea. The trip would allow her to check in with Japan, a staunch ally, and take stock of an economic rival, China, the paper said.
The paper quoted an experienced State Department hand as saying: “Besides, if no one of her stature shows up in Tokyo by April or so, the Japanese will wonder what is wrong with the relationship.”
“A secretary of state’s first foreign trip is always an event — steeped in symbolism and parsed for clues about how the new boss will conduct diplomacy,” the paper wrote.
“Mrs Clinton’s celebrity lends the maiden voyage added glitter, but also the burden of great expectations,” it said.
Obama and Hu spoke on Friday morning, US time, in their first telephone call since the US leader came to power.
“President Obama told President Hu that he looked forward to meeting with him and to early contacts and exchanges between senior officials of our two countries,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Gibbs would not say whether Taiwan had been discussed in the telephone conversation, but China’s Xinhua new agency said the two leaders had agreed to meet at the G20 economic summit in London in April.
It also said the leaders exchanged invitations to visit each other’s country.
Clinton said earlier that she would pursue a “comprehensive” dialogue with China that went beyond the economic focus of the administration of former US president George W. Bush.
The senior congressional source said Clinton had made it clear to her staff that on foreign visits she would only deal with substantive issues and issues in which she could make a difference.
“That being the case, it would be impossible for her to visit China without discussing Taiwan,” the source said.
He said that last month China issued a 105-page White Paper on national defense stating that “the United States continues to sell arms to Taiwan,” which leads to “serious harm to Sino-US relations as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.”
David Rothkopf, an academic at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, said: “The critical relationship that requires the most attention right now that has gotten the least is that with China.”
“They are a critical strategic partner in every area of international priority for the US. Because they are also a potential rival, we need a dialogue open and constant enough to manage the relationship through those times when there are, as there inevitably will be, disagreements,” Rothkopf said.
“The foundation for that relationship needs to be laid in an early high-level visit by her, followed by an early state visit by President Obama,” he said.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS