The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman for supporting Lithuania developing ties with Taiwan during her call with Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis.
Sherman and Landsbergis during their talk on Friday “emphasized the strength and breadth of the US-Lithuanian bilateral relationship, which is grounded in our NATO Alliance; strengthening US-EU cooperation, including on China; and our common commitment to advance peace, prosperity, security, democracy, and human rights in the Transatlantic region and across the globe,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Sherman “reiterated the United States is resolute in our solidarity with our NATO Ally and EU partner Lithuania, including standing with them in the face of the People’s Republic of China’s recent coercive behavior in response to Lithuania’s decision to develop mutually beneficial ties with Taiwan,” he said.
Photo: CNA
The Baltic country’s relations with China soured after it agreed with Taiwan’s plan to establish a Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania. It also plans to open a representative office in Taiwan this fall.
Lithuanian Ambassador to China Diana Mickeviciene on Wednesday said she had been asked to leave the country, one day after Beijing recalled its Ambassador Shen Zhifei (申知非) from Vilnius.
“Our strength is our allies & shared conviction that freedom & democracy will prevail,” Landsbergis wrote on Twitter yesterday.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement thanked the US for its firm support.
Washington has demonstrated its position as a leader of the global alliance of democracies at a time when other democratic countries are facing coercion by an authoritarian regime, the ministry said.
The ministry reiterated its stance that it would continue to promote practical and mutually beneficial relations with other like-minded partners, without flinching due to any outside pressure.
The Taipei Mission in the Republic of Latvia, which also oversees relations with Lithuania, on Friday rejected a statement published by the Chinese embassy in Lithuania in a local newspaper on Saturday last week.
The Chinese embassy’s statement that “Taiwan is part of China” is misleading and false, the mission said in a statement.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) is a sovereign state that has never been governed by the People’s Republic of China, it said.
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
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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.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
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