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
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS