US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack.
Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they do not do it.”
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Trump said he has talked with Xi since his election and communicated with him as recently as three days before the interview.
Asked if he told Xi that China must not invade Taiwan in the most recent exchange, Trump said: “We did not talk about that.”
“I have a very good relationship [with Xi] and I hope he does not do it,” he added.
Separately, Japanese media reported that Washington is to reconstitute the US forces in Japan as a joint force headquarters under the Indo-Pacific Command.
The move would enable the US to use the planned headquarters to facilitate coordination between the Indo-Pacific Command and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), Kyodo News said.
The two nations would create a task force to oversee the headquarters’ establishment, it said.
The JSDF are creating a Joint Operations Command, which is expected to be operational before the end of this year, to interface with the proposed US headquarters, it said.
The reorganization of the two nations’ forces was among the subjects discussed in the US-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in July, Kyodo News said.
Lieutenant General Stephen Jost, commander of US Forces in Japan, and Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani discussed the matter at their intelligence-sharing meeting in October, it said.
The reflagging was part of US lawmaker’s addendum to the US$895.2 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 proposed by the US Department of Defense, it said.
The conditions, which included the conduct of specific joint activities between the US and Japanese forces, must be implemented within 180 days of the bill’s expected passage by the US Congress, it said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS