Two former senior US officials arrived in Taiwan yesterday for post-election talks and to underscore the US government’s “longstanding interest” in peace across the Taiwan Strait, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday.
The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德), who won Saturday’s presidential election, is to take office on May 20.
A senior White House official last week said that, in a show of support for Taiwan, US President Joe Biden planned to send an unofficial delegation to Taiwan after Saturday’s elections.
Photo: CNA
The AIT yesterday said that former US national security adviser Stephen Hadley and former US deputy secretary of state James Steinberg would visit Taiwan.
“As we have done previously following a Taiwan presidential election, the US government has asked former senior officials to travel in their private capacity to Taiwan,” the AIT said, adding its US-based chair Laura Rosenberger was accompanying the duo.
The delegation is today to “meet with a range of leading political figures and convey congratulations from the American people to Taiwan on its successful elections, support for Taiwan’s continued prosperity and growth, and our longstanding interest in cross-Strait peace and stability,” the AIT said.
Photo: CNA
In other news, Japanese Representative Keiji Furuya, chair of the Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council, Japanese Representative Yasushi Kaneko and Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association chairman Ohashi Mitsuo are in Taiwan to congratulate the Taiwanese public for the elections.
The two representatives and Mitsuo yesterday had separate meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, and Lai at the DPP headquarters in Taipei.
Lai thanked the three for their trip highlighting the profound friendship between Taiwan and Japan.
The two countries are close democratic partners caring about regional peace and stability, and sharing common values such as democracy, Lai told Mitsuo, adding that he hoped to continue exchanges with Japan on economy, trade, net zero transition and innovation.
Japanese people understand the importance of the ties between Taipei and Tokyo, Mitsuo said, adding that Japan is looking forward to continuing to deepen cooperation and exchanges with Taiwan’s future government.
Mitsuo told Tsai that he is looking forward to working with Lai to further improve Taiwan-Japan relations, adding that the election result is an approval by Taiwanese people to Tsai administration’s policies.
Despite China’s various attempts to interfere in Taiwan’s elections, the nation elected its new leaders through democratic procedures, which was “sending an important message to the world,” Furuya said during the meeting with Tsai.
His council is to continue cooperating with the Taiwanese government to build a free and open Indo-Pacific region, he added.
All three Japanese representatives also expressed gratitude to Taiwanese for showing concern for their country after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the Noto region of Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS