The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the US Democratic Party for including for the first time the “six assurances” — a long-standing US foreign policy governing relations with Taiwan — in its party platform and subsequently ratifying it at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
In its platform, the Democratic Party “firmly pledged to preserve peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and ensure that there were no unilateral changes to the status quo from either side,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Marking yet another explicit expression of staunch support for Taiwan in the Democratic Party platform, this was also the first time that the platform included a reference to the Six Assurances and a statement on remaining ‘steadfast in America’s commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,’” the ministry said, adding that it welcomed this strong support for Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
“The inclusion of Taiwan-friendly text in the party platform not only reflected the Democratic Party’s unwavering support for Taiwan, but also underscored its high regard for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, a consensus that is shared by the international community,” the ministry said.
“Taiwan has long enjoyed friendly relations with all circles in the US. MOFA will build on this solid foundation by continuing to engage in close and steadfast cooperation with the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and other friends across all sectors in the US so as to steadily deepen the values-based Taiwan-US partnership across the globe,” it added.
The “six assurances,” which were passed as unilateral US clarifications to the Third Communique between the US and China in 1982, state that the US has neither agreed to set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, nor has it agreed to consult with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on arms sales to Taiwan.
The US will also not play a mediation role between Taipei and Beijing, nor revise the Taiwan Relations Act, they say.
Additionally, the US government has not altered its position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan, nor will it exert pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiations with the PRC, they say.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), who is leading a legislative delegation to the Democratic Party Convention this week, said that the US party has made a major declaration of its stance on Taiwan by including the “six assurances” in its party platform.
“Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are important friends of Taiwan, and we are glad to participate in the important activities of these parties,” he said.
Another delegation member, DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲), said that the inclusion again showed that “support for Taiwan” is a bipartisan consensus in the US.
Additional reporting by Chen Chih-yu
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
RSS