US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft is to visit Taiwan soon, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, without specifying when, as he released a statement of support for Hong Kong’s democratic movement.
Washington supports the people of Hong Kong and “all who yearn for freedom,” Pompeo said.
“In that vein, I am pleased to announce the upcoming visit of US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft to Taiwan, a reliable partner and vibrant democracy that has flourished despite CCP [Chinese Communist Party] efforts to undermine its great success. Taiwan shows what a free China could achieve,” he said.
Photo: AP
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement that the ministry would welcome Craft’s delegation and that it is working with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on the details.
Craft would be the first US ambassador to the UN to visit Taiwan, which would demonstrate Washington’s strong support for Taiwan’s international participation and the advancement of the Taiwan-US partnership, Ou said.
As of press time last night, the AIT had not commented on the planned visit.
However, whether Craft could make trip, given that US president-elect Joe Biden is to be sworn in on Jan. 20, is questionable.
US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler in November last year canceled a planned trip to Taipei last month after drawing media criticism for wasting money.
Pompeo’s statement came after Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested 53 democracy advocates for alleged breaches of the territory’s National Security Law.
Pompeo said that the mass arrests were “an outrage, and a reminder of the Chinese Communist Party’s contempt for its own people and the rule of law.”
“The United States will not stand idly by while the people of Hong Kong suffer under communist oppression,” he said, adding that Washington “will consider sanctions and other restrictions on any and all individuals and entities involved in executing this assault on the Hong Kong people.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) yesterday said that Pompeo’s statement had violated the “one China” principle and the three China-US joint communiques.
Certain anti-China politicians in the administration of US President Donald Trump are doing whatever they can to sabotage China-US ties, even though their days are numbered, Hua said, adding that China would take all necessary measures to defend its sovereignty and security, and the US would pay a heavy price for its wrongdoing.
Craft is known as a strong supporter of Taiwan and has expressed support for the nation’s inclusion in the UN, saying in a speech in September last year that it was “cheating the world” not to have Taiwan participating in UN activities.
Craft had lunch with Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York Director James Lee (李光章) on Sept. 16 last year.
She said at the time that Lee, who had only recently arrived in the US city, had invited her to lunch.
She later told The Associated Press that the lunch with Lee at an outdoor restaurant on Manhattan’s East Side was the first meeting between a top Taiwanese official and a US ambassador to the UN.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
CHANGE OF GUARD: Hsiao Bi-khim’s attendance at Joe Biden’s inauguration will come as a boost to those in Taiwan who feared that the new US administration would be less friendly than that of Donald Trump to the nation Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is to attend US President Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol after she was invited by the US Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, a news release issued by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US said last night. The news came as a surprise as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been reticent about the matter, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members had accused the Democratic Progressive Party administration of hedging its bets on the Republican Party. Asked about when Hsiao received the invitation, the ministry did not
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that
RSS