Just hours after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration on Wednesday, the US Department of State’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced in Washington the possible sale of 18 MK-48 Heavy Weight Torpedoes to Taiwan.
Reacting to the announcement, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday told a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee that the ministry applauded the US move, which would help to uphold the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
The TRA states that the US should “provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character … to maintain the capacity of the US to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.”
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
The possible sale — which includes 18 MK-48s, spare parts, logistics support, training and manuals — was valued at US$180 million and is pending review by the US Congress.
Wu told Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) that the announcement could be considered tacit US support for the Taiwan’s indigenous arms manufacturing program.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Chang Che-ping (張哲平) said in an interview at the Legislative Yuan that the sale, if approved, would help strengthen the nation’s defensive capabilities and maintain peace in the region.
However, in Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) yesterday said that China is “staunchly against” US arm sales to Taiwan, reminding the US to observe the “one China” principle and to respect the three US-China communiques on the issue.
China’s state-run Global Times said that Beijing should “zero Taiwan’s diplomatic relations,” as the basis of regular US-China interaction over the “Taiwan issue” had been undermined and Beijing should pursue its goals in its own fashion.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei declined to comment on the article.
In related news, the military on Wednesday and yesterday participated in the US-led Indo-Pacific Landpower Conference, which was held by videoconference.
Footage released by the South Korean Army showed that the Republic of China national flag had been included alongside those of the other 26 participating nations.
Taiwan was represented by Army Logistics Command Combat Medic Division Major General Hsieh Chung-bao (謝宗保).
Meanwhile, responding to DPP Legislator Chao Tian-lin’s (趙天麟) query about a possible visit by a delegation headed by Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil, Wu said that the the government would welcome such a visit.
The foreign ministry would make the necessary preparations once the global COVID-19 pandemic has been brought under control, he said.
Additional reporting by Aaron Tu and Lu Yi-hsuan
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
RSS