The US will stand with Taiwan in fending off attacks by authoritarians and has no intention of changing the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait, former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien said in Taipei yesterday.
O’Brien, who served under former US president Donald Trump, made the remarks at the Presidential Office in Taipei, where President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) conferred on him the Order of Brilliant Star.
Taiwan has been exemplary in its realization of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law — values that totalitarian and authoritarian regimes are trying to undermine around the world, he said.
Photo: CNA
Taipei is rightly committing to spend more resources on national defense, including reinstating one year of mandatory military service, measures that protect the country against interference, and the development of asymmetric warfare capabilities and a porcupine strategy, he said.
Washington would not want Taiwan to come under attack from an authoritarian regime and he can vouch that the US would stand in solidarity with the nation, O’Brien said.
Defending Taiwan was the policy of the Trump administration then and it is the policy of US President Joe Biden, who has affirmed four times that US forces would defend Taiwan if China were to invade the nation, he said.
The US does not make commitments to defend a country’s security lightly, as numerous American families have members who serve in the armed forces, including his two daughters, O’Brien said.
No US president, Trump and Biden included, has had the slightest intention to change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, contrary to claims by those who spread misinformation, he said.
The goal of the US and its allies is to prevent the world from regressing to the past when a powerful state can invade its weaker neighbors for glory, territory or economic gain, he said.
Tsai said the partnership of democracies should rise to the challenge posed by authoritarian expansionism and defend peace through strength.
She also called on Washington to enhance its security and economic cooperation with Taiwan.
‘UNFRIENDLY’: Changing the nationality listing of Taiwanese residents to ‘China’ goes against EU foreign policy as well as democratic and human rights principles, MOFA said Taiwan yesterday called on Denmark to correct its designation of the nationality of Taiwanese residents as “China” or face retaliatory measures. The Danish government in 2024 changed the nationality of Taiwanese citizens on their residence permits from “Taiwan” to “China.” The decision goes against EU foreign policy and contravenes democratic and human rights principles, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said. Denmark should present a solution acceptable to Taiwan as soon as possible and correct the erroneous designation to preserve the longstanding friendship between the two nations, Hsiao said. The issue could damage Denmark’s image and business reputation in Taiwan,
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
Taiwan climbed to its highest position in global export rankings in more than three decades last year, buoyed by demand linked to artificial intelligence (AI) that lifted shipments of semiconductors and technology products, Ministry of Finance data released yesterday showed. Taiwan accounted for 2.4 percent of global exports last year, or about US$640 billion, ranking 12th worldwide, the data showed. That was up four places from a year earlier and marked the nation’s best ranking since 1994, the ministry said. Taiwan’s share of global exports rose by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year, the largest increase among major economies, reflecting the nation’s
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
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