Washington should not allow Beijing to decide the travel schedules of US officials, former US secretary of defense Mark Esper said yesterday in Taipei, after US President Joe Biden said that US military officials believe it is “not a good idea” for US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan.
Biden’s comment came in an exchange with reporters a day after the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would take “resolute and strong measures” should Pelosi proceed with reported plans to visit Taiwan in the coming weeks.
The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that Pelosi planned to move forward with a previously postponed visit to Taipei next month. Her office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei have not confirmed the report.
Photo: CNA
“Well, I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now,” Biden said in response to a question about Pelosi’s reported trip. “But I don’t know what the status of it is.”
The president stopped short of suggesting that Pelosi not travel to Taiwan.
Pelosi was originally scheduled to visit in April, but had to postpone after she tested positive for COVID-19. She would be the highest-ranking US lawmaker to visit Taiwan since former US House speaker Newt Gingrich visited in 1997.
Regarding Biden’s comments, Esper, who is visiting Taiwan, told reporters in Taipei that Beijing should not have any say over the travel schedules of US officials.
“I don’t think we should allow China to dictate the travel schedules of American officials,” he told a news conference.
The incident again highlighted the problem with Washington’s long-standing “one China” policy, which has “run its course,” and needs to be “updated and modernized,” he said.
“I think it’s important that American political leaders visit Taiwan, understand the situation here, have a chance to meet with Taiwan’s political leadership, and get a better sense of what’s happening and how things are viewed from here in Taipei, less than 110 miles [177km] from the [Chinese] ‘mainland,’ and get to make their own assessment,” he said.
It is important that Washington develops a fresh perspective concerning its cross-strait policy, he added.
“And the simple fact that we’re worried about what China may or may not do with regard to the speaker of the House visiting is a case in point that we need to relook [at] our policy,” he said.
Esper was US defense head from 2019 to 2020 under then-US president Donald Trump.
Leading a delegation from the Atlantic Council, Esper arrived in Taipei on Monday for a four-day visit to meet with government officials and other politicians to discuss trade, diplomacy, economic issues and security.
Regarding Biden’s comments, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) reiterated the ministry’s stance that it had not received any information about a planned visit by Pelosi, adding that it always welcomes visits from US lawmakers.
China has expressed its strong opposition to Pelosi’s rumored trip, with Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) urging Washington to “stop creating tensions over the Taiwan Strait.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development