Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) yesterday confirmed that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former US national security official Stephen Yates met on Wednesday and Yates urged Tsai to keep a low profile during her transit stops in the US on her way to Central America next month.
Speaking on the sidelines of a morning meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Lee said Tsai and Yates had an in-depth conversation, but he did not know what they discussed because he was not there.
“Yates and I are old acquaintances. When I was stationed in Washington, Yates served as deputy national security adviser to then-US vice president Dick Cheney. We met once or twice every month,” Lee said.
Photo: CNA
Yates is scheduled to visit him today to discuss Taiwan-US relations, he said.
The ministry is organizing the itinerary for Tsai’s state visit to four diplomatic allies and is still in talks with the US about her transit stops on her way to and from Central America, he said.
New York was never considered for a transit stop, he said, amid rumors that it would allow for the possibility of a meeting with US president-elect Donald Trump, whom she spoke with by telephone on Friday last week.
Photo: Liao Chen-Huei, Taipei Times
“The president’s itinerary will be made public by the Presidential Office once the details are finalized,” he said.
Regarding foreign news reports that the call was the result of the government’s orchestrated efforts with a lobbying firm affiliated with former US senator Bob Dole, Lee said it was Taiwanese diplomats who contacted a key aide on Trump’s transition team and no US consulting or lobbying firms that the government works with played a role.
“It was purely a congratulatory phone call, during which discussions of substantial bilateral issues were limited. As President Tsai told US reporters the other day, the call does not suggest a major change in Taiwan-US policy,” Lee said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), who attended the meeting between Tsai and Yates, quoted Yates as saying that Taiwan should be prepared for a tougher stance on trade negotiations once Trump takes office.
The issue of imports of US pork containing ractopamine was not discussed, Lo said.
Yates also called for people-to-people interactions between Taipei and Washington at all levels, including in the areas of trade, investment and acquisitions, Lo said, so that Americans could feel the close ties they have with Taiwanese.
Yates felt that there was no need for Tsai to meet with Trump during a transit stop, but she might engage with ordinary US citizens, Lo said.
Regarding the possibility of changes in the US’ “one China” policy, Lo said regardless of the content of the policy, both sides agreed that there are still many areas of Taiwan-US relations that require effort.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who knows Yates, also attended the three-hour meeting, which was held at the president’s official residence, Lo said.
COMMITMENT: The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said that its new 2nm chips, as well as next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4nm chips, will be produced in Taiwan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the majority of its most advanced chips would continue to be manufactured in Taiwan and that it is boosting advanced chip packaging capacity to catch up with fast-growing demand driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT. Deeply rooted in Taiwan, TSMC is expanding production capacity for its most advanced 3-nanometer (nm) chips at its Tainan fab and is building new plants to produce new 2-nanometer chips in Hsinchu and Taichung in 2025. The chipmaker also plans to produce next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4-nanometer chips, which are currently under development, at home, it
Former US president Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former US president to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw. The US Department of Justice was expected to make public a seven-count indictment ahead of a historic court appearance next week amid a presidential campaign punctuated by criminal prosecutions in multiple states. The indictment carries unmistakably grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if Trump is convicted. It also has enormous political implications, potentially upending a Republican presidential primary that Trump
PASSAGE DISPUTE: A US and Canadian transit was a provocation and an attempt to ‘exercise hegemony of navigation,’ China’s defense ministry told a forum in Singapore The Ministry of National Defense yesterday urged the Chinese Communist Party to avoid provocative behavior after a Chinese navy ship crossed the paths of a US destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese ship on Saturday “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of [the USS] Chung-Hoon,” an American destroyer, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The vessel “overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards [137m]. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 [knots, 18.5kph] to avoid a collision,” the statement said. It then “crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time
HARD-WON FREEDOM: Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on protesters has not been and should not be forgotten, as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Lai said Taiwanese enjoy democracy and freedom and have multiple ways to express their creativity, and hopefully young people in China would also one day have the freedom to sing and express themselves, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s bloody crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing in 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident. Tsai posted a photograph taken in March in a subway station in Guizhou, China, where hundreds of young people gathered to sing People With No Ideals Don’t Get Hurt (沒有理想的人不傷心), saying that they
RSS