Five US representatives on Friday called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to not impose conditions on President William Lai (賴清德) should he make a stopover in US territory during his trip to the South Pacific.
The representatives also urged US President Joe Biden to “consider meeting personally with Mr Lai during his visit.”
The letter was signed by US representatives Tom Tiffany, Andy Ogles, Chris Smith, Scott Perry and Lance Gooden about a week before Lai is scheduled to make his first official overseas visit since taking office on May 20.
Photo: Reuters
Lai is to travel to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau from Saturday to Dec. 6, although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declined to confirm whether he and his delegation would stop over in US territory.
Plans for Lai’s transit during the South Pacific trip “are still being finalized,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) told a news conference in Taipei on Friday.
In their letter, the five representatives said that Blinken should “refrain from imposing arbitrary conditions” on Lai should he make a transit stop in the US, such as restricting his interactions with journalists or limiting his ability to conduct public engagements.
No US law concerning ties with Taiwan “call for prohibitions or limitations on visits by high-ranking Taiwanese officials, including their duly elected president,” they said.
“In fact, the contrary is true: Our statutes explicitly guarantee that Taiwan’s president ‘shall be admitted’ to the US for discussions with American officials, and make it the policy of the United States to expand such high-level visits in the future,” the letter said.
They also criticized Beijing’s calls on Washington to block a potential stopover by Lai in the US as “outrageous and unacceptable,” adding that interference in US internal affairs “should be forcefully and publicly rejected.”
They were referring to comments by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) at a news conference earlier this month.
Lin said that China “consistently opposes the US arrangements of such transits.”
“We urge Washington to ... not allow Lai Ching-te to transit [through the US] and not send wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces,” he said.
Despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations, Washington has allowed Taiwanese presidents to make stopovers on US soil during their trips to visit Taiwan’s diplomatic allies.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) traveled to the South Pacific twice during her two four-year tenures, in 2017 and 2019. Her 2017 trip included layovers in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Guam, and her 2019 trip included a stopover in Honolulu.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS