Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) not to make the nation’s diplomacy a matter of “partisan bickering.”
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in his final New Year’s address as president, yesterday said that his “viable diplomacy” has “earned fruitful achievements and won the respect of the international community,” adding that if Taiwan “reverts to the ‘scorched-earth diplomacy’ undertaken eight years ago, history would repeat itself, with the nation’s allies severing diplomatic ties and the nation being blocked from international organizations.”
Tsai — who was in Taoyuan yesterday for a New Year’s flag-raising event where she again refused to sing “our party” during the national anthem — said the nation’s diplomacy should not be divided along party lines, but needs to be an affair that all Taiwanese put effort into.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
“[I] hope that [diplomatic affairs] will not become an issue manipulated for partisan debate,” she said.
Tsai said that the so-called “scorched-earth diplomacy” was a label coined by the KMT, while neither she nor the DPP had ever used it.
“[The DPP’s] attitude toward foreign affairs is proactive, aiming to broaden Taiwan’s [international] space and helping Taiwan’s diplomatic efforts gain recognition from the international community. This is what the DPP is going to do and something we hope we can all do together,” Tsai said.
It was not the first time that the president, or his spokesperson, had claimed that a DPP victory in the presidential election would trigger a diplomatic crisis, with KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) claiming that 18 diplomatic allies would switch recognition from Taipei to Beijing should Tsai prevail.
However, an investigative report published yesterday by Storm Media said that Ma was briefed by National Security Bureau Director-General Yang Kuo-chiang (楊國強) as early as September last year on what Yang learned at a conference attended by Central American intelligence chiefs.
In his report, Yang said that the possibility of China launching a diplomatic war over Taiwan’s allies in Central and South America was slim, as Beijing believes “cross-strait benefits outweigh the diplomatic benefits [it could gain] in Central and South America.”
“Therefore, there would not be an ‘avalanche’ of cases of severance of diplomatic relations” if the DPP wins the presidency, the report said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is reportedly displeased over Alex Tsai’s allegations of diplomatic allies “waiting to establish ties with China.”
“[The ministry] does not know where he [Alex Tsai] got the information, but it is absolutely false,” it said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS