The British Royal Navy has a right to transit through the Taiwan Strait, British Secretary of Defence Grant Shapps said yesterday, shortly after announcing that a carrier strike group would sail there.
Speaking in an interview with British newspaper the Times, Shapps said that international law protects freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait, but added that the path of the British warships had yet not been decided.
The carrier strike group, consisting of one aircraft carrier and escort ships, is to visit Japan as part of the flagship 2025 Indo-Pacific deployment, the British Ministry of Defence said in a news release.
Photo: EPA-EFE / MOD / CROWN COPYRIGHT
“The strength and global reach of the UK’s armed forces should never be underestimated,” Shapps was quoted as saying. “The carrier strike group 2025 is another tangible example of our ability to deploy globally.”
“Such deployments send a strong deterrence message while presenting important opportunities for engagements with key partners,” he said.
The carrier strike group represents a concentration of “cutting-edge air, surface and underwater defense” capabilities, but is also “a focal point for worldwide democratic activity,” the ministry said.
Separately yesterday, Representative to the US Alexander Yui called on the West to “not look the other way” in responding to a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“The best defense, best help that you can do for Taiwan ... is by actively, openly voicing your concerns that you will not accept Chinese aggression towards Taiwan,” Yui said in an interview with Politico.
Faced with a belligerent China that is preparing “very seriously to have the ability to invade Taiwan,” the nation has opted to “increase defense capabilities” in a bid to defeat “any possible aggressions in the future,” he said.
Drawing a parallel with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Yui said the ongoing war “is a mirror to Taiwan,” which is also “facing an attack from a much larger country.”
Taiwan is seeking to improve its defensive capabilities as Kyiv did following Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea and part of the Donbas region in 2014, he said.
“So the threats are there and we want to preserve our way of life,” Yui said. “We want to preserve our democracy. We want to preserve liberties, and we will defend it.”
Beijing is expected to put immense pressure on Taiwan from the elections on Jan. 13 to the presidential inauguration in May to force the president-elect to make concessions to placate China in their inaugural speech, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS