It would be “inconceivable” for Australia not to join the US should Washington take action to defend Taiwan, Australian Minister of Defence Peter Dutton said yesterday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said that the US and its allies would take unspecified “action” if China were to use force to alter the “status quo” over Taiwan.
“It would be inconceivable that we wouldn’t support the US in an action if the US chose to take that action,” Dutton told the Australian newspaper in an interview.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“And, again, I think we should be very frank and honest about that, look at all of the facts and circumstances without precommitting, and maybe there are circumstances where we wouldn’t take up that option, [but] I can’t conceive of those circumstances,” he said.
China’s military on Tuesday said it conducted a combat readiness patrol in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, after the Chinese Ministry of National Defense condemned a visit by a US congressional delegation to Taiwan.
China has “been very clear about their intent to go into Taiwan, and we need to make sure that there is a high level of preparedness, a greater sense of deterrence by our capability, and that is how I think we put our country in a position of strength,” Dutton told the newspaper.
US President Joe Biden is to hold a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) tomorrow, the White House has said, talks Washington hopes will create some stability amid increased tensions between the two nations.
Xi and Biden “will exchange views on China-US relations and issues of mutual interest,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said in a statement.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) spoke to Blinken on Saturday, and urged both sides to prepare for a smooth meeting to ensure that relations are propelled back to a healthy level, a statement on the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site said.
Wang also told Blinken that the US should not send the wrong signals to Taiwanese pro-independence forces, the statement said.
“If the United States really wants to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, it should clearly and resolutely oppose any Taiwan pro-independence behavior,” Wang said.
Wang and Blinken also exchanged views on areas including energy efficiency, climate change and the Iran nuclear issue, and agreed to maintain dialogue on global challenges, China said.
Former US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel Russel said both Biden and Xi are worried by the risk of a military incident escalating.
“Biden knows that the tools for prevention and crisis management are rusty, so we should expect him to push to put in place safeguards or ‘guardrails’ to reduce risk,” he said.
Russel said the Sept. 9 call between the presidents began with Xi listing complaints, but ended with a constructive agreement for officials to continue discussions.
“This suggests that the personal relationship Biden built with Xi a decade ago is still strong, and that each conversation can add some stability to the mix,” he said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS