Following a landmark visit to the White House on Wednesday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making her the first Taiwanese presidential candidate to have entered the US Department of State headquarters.
US Department of State officials said at a post-meeting press conference that they appreciated Tsai’s visit, during which she held “constructive” talks with US officials.
Based on the US’ “one China” policy — as stipulated in the Three Joint Communiques between Washington and Beijing and the US’ Taiwan Relations Act — the US has developed solid unofficial ties with Taiwan, the officials said.
Photo: Chen Hui-ping, Taipei Times
The US has committed to supporting Taiwan’s security, freedom from coercion and economic prosperity, while helping it attain dignity and respect in the international community, they added.
Tsai entered the Harry S. Truman Building — the US Department of State headquarters — in the company of DPP Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and the party’s Washington liaison, Michael Fonte.
The meeting with Blinken lasted about an hour.
Asked if she felt the US government has “upgraded” its treatment of her compared with her visit in 2011, Tsai said: “This is a simple fact. I walked in [the building] and that is it.”
Tsai’s meeting with the US Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia Evan Medeiros at the White House on Wednesday has been seen as a major political breakthrough for Taiwan-US relations, as she was the first Taiwanese presidential candidate to have visited the White House — a privilege not granted to Tsai on her last visit in 2011, nor to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who visited Washington as then-Taipei mayor and KMT chairman in 2006, nor to former DPP chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who visited the US as the DPP presidential candidate in 2007.
Tsai on Wednesday also met with former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Randall Schriver.
Separately on Thursday, while addressing a dinner held for Taiwanese expatriates in Washington, Tsai said she does not need to have her qualifications evaluated in any other nation and needs only to answer to 23 million Taiwanese.
Tsai said that the purpose of her US visit is not to have a job interview, but to convey two messages — that Taiwanese will stick to a democratic and free lifestyle, and that she is responsible and determined to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Tsai was responding to comments made earlier this week by Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (崔天凱).
Noting that some people have said Tsai’s visit is aimed at seeking Washington’s endorsement prior to January’s election, Cui said he wondered why she would talk to foreigners, but not directly to her compatriots on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS