The US State Department said on Tuesday that it was involved in ongoing dialogue with China over a number of difficult issues, including arms sales to Taiwan, but that it was hopeful they could be resolved.
“I think what we’re clearly indicating is that we will continue to follow our national interest just as we would expect China to follow its national interest,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said when asked at a State Department briefing what US President Barack Obama was doing to ensure that Google, arms sales to Taiwan and an upcoming White House meeting with the Dalai Lama do not harm US-China relations.
“We continue to have a broad and deep relationship with China,” Crowley said. “If you look at the strategic and economic dialogue, it has become a key platform through which we engage at high levels, across the respective governments, on a range of issues political, economic and security related.”
Crowley said the US would continue the dialogue and that he expected China’s top diplomatic and treasury officials to meet their US counterparts later this year.
He said the US cooperates with China on counterterrorism, law enforcement, scientific and technical issues and health problems.
“Do we have issues that crop up from time to time? Absolutely. You have two of the most powerful nations on earth. And our interests coincide in many areas. And our interests collide occasionally. And we work through them and we’ll continue to work through them, through the kind of ongoing dialogue that has characterized our interaction with China since the Obama administration came into office,” Crowley said.
Asked if the US was reaching out to China or doing anything special now — following the Taiwan arms sales announcement last week — Crowley said: “If you look back on these issues, we’ve had very recent conversations with Chinese officials here in Washington, in Beijing and in other locations.”
“We’ve had multiple sessions with Chinese officials. The Chinese have obviously communicated to us their concerns about issues such as Taiwan and the Dalai Lama. So we will continue this dialogue and we expect that we’ll work through these issues as we have in the past,” he said.
Asked about Chinese threats to boycott products by US firms making arms for Taiwan, Crowley said: “As we said when we heard that from our Chinese friends, we regret that they’ve announced that step.”
A reporter at the meeting then asked: “How friendly are they right now? What exactly is going on here?”
Crowley did not reply.
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA