A US military transport plane made a brief stopover yesterday morning in Taipei, drawing media attention and no comment from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A C-146A Wolfhound touched down at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) at 9:32am after flying from Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan, Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) reported.
Apart from regular landing procedures handled by the airport, the air force said that it had no contact with the aircraft.
Photo: Screen grab from Twitter
It was reportedly carrying a package for newly installed AIT Director Sandra Oudkirk, who is undergoing a 14-day quarantine after arriving in Taiwan on Monday, TVBS said.
Originally scheduled to stay for one hour, the plane departed 24 minutes early at 10:06am after delivering the package, it reported.
The US Air Force says that the C-146A Wolfhound is a modified version of the Dornier 328 commuter airliner used mostly to transport small teams and cargo for the US Special Operations Command.
Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) expressed “grave concern” over the visit, saying that any foreign military aircraft landing on Chinese territory must be approved by the People’s Republic of China.
The US must cease playing with fire, as it would only draw Taiwan into a dangerous situation, Wu said in a statement on the ministry’s Web site.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is on high alert and will take all necessary measures to resolutely crush any designs on ‘Taiwanese independence,’” he added.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) urged the US to abide by the Three Joint Communiques and stop further provocative action.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), who serves on the legislature’s National Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, confirmed the visit on Facebook, but declined to comment on its intent.
Regardless of what the aircraft came to do, its significance lies in the fact of its arrival, Wang said.
How the US interacts with Taiwan “is our business,” he said.
“No one else has the right to intervene,” Wang added.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
SECURITY: Grassroots civil servants would only need to disclose their travel, while those who have access to classified information would be subject to stricter regulations The government is considering requiring legislators and elected officials to obtain prior approval before traveling to China to prevent Chinese infiltration, an official familiar with national security said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) in March announced 17 measures to counter China’s growing infiltration efforts, including requiring all civil servants to make trips to China more transparent so they can be held publicly accountable. The official said that the government is considering amending the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to require all civil servants to follow strict regulations before traveling to China.
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
RSS