Taiwan plans to boost military exchanges with the US to curb authoritarian expansionism, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday after meeting with visiting US lawmakers.
The five-day US congressional visit comes after a top US defense official reportedly made a stopover in Taiwan.
“Taiwan and the United States continue to bolster military exchanges,” Tsai said after meeting with the delegation at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “Going forward, Taiwan will cooperate even more actively with the United States and other democratic partners to confront such global challenges as authoritarian expansionism and climate change.”
Photo: AFP / Taiwan Presidential Office
Tsai did not provide further details on what the future exchanges might entail.
It is time “to explore even more opportunities for cooperation” between the US and Taiwan, Tsai said.
“Together we can continue to safeguard the values of democracy and freedom,” she added.
Taiwan and the US should “leverage their respective strengths and together build more resilient technology industrial chains,” Tsai said, adding that the two countries have collaborated on semiconductors, 5G communications and renewable energy sources under bilateral science and technology initiatives.
US Representative Ro Khanna, a member of the newly created US House of Representatives committee on strategic competition with the Chinese Communist Party, said he was leading the bipartisan delegation’s visit to expand “the partnership on military and defense,” and to shore up ties with the nation’s world-leading semiconductor industry.
Established last month, the select committee is tasked with investigating issues related to US economic and security competition with China and making policy recommendations.
“We are here to affirm the shared values between the United States and Taiwan, a commitment to democracy, a commitment to freedom,” Khanna said yesterday.
He “particularly appreciated” a meeting on Monday with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀), Khanna said.
Also in the delegation, which arrived in Taiwan on Sunday for a five-day visit, are US representatives Jake Auchincloss — a member of the select committee — Jonathan Jackson and Tony Gonzales.
Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to seize it one day, opposes any official exchanges with the democracy and has reacted with anger to a flurry of trips to the island by US politicians in recent years.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) yesterday accused Taiwanese leaders of “provocation,” saying that “any futile separatist conspiracy or scheme relying on foreign forces to undermine cross-strait relations will only backfire and never succeed.”
Taiwanese authorities “cannot change the inevitable broader trend toward Chinese unification,” Wang told a regular news conference.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
‘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
RSS