China has noted the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and could take steps to protect itself from a similar rebuke stemming from a more aggressive posture toward Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.
“You have to believe that they’re thinking along those lines, if they were considering doing something in the future,” Austin told reporters shortly after he left Cambodia, where he attended a series of meetings with ASEAN defense ministers.
He said he had not “seen any physical signs of them insulating themselves.”
Photo: AP
Asked if he anticipated Pacific Rim nations would rally to Taiwan’s side if China were to launch an invasion, Austin said allies’ respect for the rules-based international order “will lead them in whatever direction they go in, and not just allegiance to the United States.”
US President Joe Biden has said Washington would defend Taiwan militarily from a Chinese attack — remarks that prompted Beijing to increase pressure on Taiwan following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August.
Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Indonesia last week held their first in-person meeting since Biden assumed office, a session aimed at putting the US-China relationship on a more stable footing.
Photo: REUTERS
Still, China remains a “challenge” for the US and is likely already working to safeguard its economy and supply chains against sanctions allies would impose if it tries to invade Taiwan.
“China is our basic challenge. We don’t call them a threat, we call them a challenge. That’s the relationship that we believe we have,” Austin said. “We have a competitive relationship and not a contentious relationship.”
Austin met with Chinese Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和) in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on Tuesday, the first face-to-face meeting between the two since Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.
Photo: AFP
The Pentagon chief called for the two sides to keep their lines of communication open and warned of “increasingly dangerous behavior” by Chinese military aircraft in the Indo-Pacific region, according to a statement and briefing by US officials after the meeting.
US forces are “spending a lot more time” training in Asia, for military exercises such as Garuda Shield, Austin said.
“Our troops want to train with allies and partners. They want to develop interoperability,” he said.
Austin described his meetings with officials from China, India, the Philippines and other nations on the sidelines of the ASEAN gathering as “very productive.”
“This is a big area, a vast area and it supports a lot of commerce,” he said. “We want to make sure that the skies and seas remain open and accessible to everybody in the region and around the globe.”
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS