President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) held closed-door meetings and spoke with US officials, including having a teleconference with US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during her layover in New York, National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said.
Tsai Ming-yen made the remarks on the president’s chartered flight as the delegation left the US for Haiti on Saturday.
Tsai Ing-wen met American Institute in Taiwan Chairman James Moriarty soon after her arrival in the city on Thursday afternoon, and the following day met former US secretary of state Richard Armitage, before speaking with Pelosi on the telephone, he said.
Photo: CNA
The president expressed gratitude for the US’ and Pelosi’s support of Taiwan, including the US House of Representatives’ passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 on Friday, which includes a section supporting continued US arms sales to Taiwan, Tsai Ming-yen said.
Before attending a banquet with the Taiwanese-American community on Friday evening, the president spoke with a number of US senators and representatives, Tsai Ming-yen said.
US congressional members were interested in the Taiwan-US relationship and voiced support for Tsai Ing-wen’s role in pragmatically growing bilateral ties, he said, adding the relationship between Taiwanese and US officials is good and trust between the two runs high.
On Saturday, the president took a tourist ferry on the Hudson River past the Statue of Liberty.
“Seeing her at a close distance helped me better appreciate the significance of the existence of freedom and democracy,” Tsai Ing-wen wrote on Facebook.
The statue represents the freedom of the US, and illuminates the path in front of democratic countries, she wrote.
Before departing the Big Apple for the Caribbean to visit four diplomatic allies at about noon on Saturday, Tsai Ing-wen walked in Central Park with young Taiwanese who mostly settled in New York after finishing their studies in the US.
During her visit to New York, Tsai also met with the UN representatives of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies at Taiwan’s liaison office in New York and delivered a speech at Columbia University.
However, Chinese groups protested her visit outside the hotel she was staying at, and were involved in physical altercations with pro-Taiwan groups.
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS