A two-star US Navy admiral overseeing US military intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region has made an unannounced visit to Taiwan, two sources told Reuters on Sunday.
The sources, who include a Taiwanese official familiar with the situation, said the official was Rear Admiral Michael Studeman. They were speaking on condition of anonymity.
After initially saying on Sunday night that it had no comment about the report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it welcomed the visit of an “unidentified US official,” but declined to give more details because the trip “has not been made public.”
Photo: CNA
Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) yesterday said that due to mutual trust between Taiwan and the US, “we will not confirm nor comment” on related issues.
Studeman is director of the J2, which oversees intelligence, at the Indo-Pacific Command, according to the US Navy Web site.
The Pentagon declined to comment when asked whether Studeman was visiting Taiwan.
The visit is the latest show of support from US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has sold Taiwan billions of US dollars of weapons and sent the highest-level delegation to Taipei in four decades.
Taiwanese officials have also said that US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler would visit Taipei next month.
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said that China “resolutely opposes” any form of exchanges between US and Taiwanese officials or the two having military relations.
“The Chinese side will, according to how the situation develops, make a legitimate and necessary response,” he said, without elaborating.
In related news, the commanding officer of the USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, reiterated on Sunday that its transit through the Taiwan Strait and presence in the South China Sea are vital to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific.
“The freedom of all nations to navigate in international waters is critically important. Barry’s transit of the Taiwan Strait yesterday [Saturday] ensured the right and instills the confidence of all nations to trade and communicate in the South China Sea,” Commander Chris Gahl said in a US Pacific Fleet news release.
It was the USS Barry’s fourth routine transit through the Strait this year, with the mission being to conduct maritime security operations and promote peace and stability in the region, the report said.
The report also cited Lieutenant Commander Timothy Baker, who is the USS Barry’s planning and tactics officer, as saying that it conducted a freedom of navigation operation around the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) in April and then rendezvoused with the USS America expeditionary strike group for operations in the South China Sea.
“Whether operating independently or as a part of a larger group, Barry serves as a highly visible symbol of the overwhelming force the United States can deploy to defeat aggression,” Baker said.
On Saturday, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed that the US vessel entered the Strait from the north and headed in a southerly direction.
The ministry added that the military was monitoring the situation in the region and did not detect any unusual activities during the maneuver.
The Barry is forward-deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, and assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15, according to the US Pacific Fleet.
Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
RSS