American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene yesterday reiterated that the US stands with its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that cooperation is more critical than ever.
Greene made the comments during his congratulatory remarks at the “Taiwan Forward: Driving Modernization Amid Shifting Global Dynamics” conference at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei.
“The United States stands strong with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific,” he said. “We’re taking decisive actions to counter threats against economic resilience and advanced shared interests.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“Our cooperation is more critical than ever,” he said, adding that it makes “the US, Taiwan and all of our regional allies safer, stronger and more prosperous,” referring to remarks by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
While many countries have recognized Taiwan as a beacon of universal values and support the nation’s resilience and international participation, it has also in the past decade significantly reduced its investments in China, moving them to like-minded democratic countries, Greene said.
However, Taiwan still faces challenges, such as leading in artificial intelligence (AI), but falling behind in software development, which is partially due to reasonable concerns over China’s infiltration of Chinese-language large language models, he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Greene also addressed the nation’s security “in the face of a relentlessly aggressive China that is using the full range of military, economic and diplomatic tools against Taiwan.”
“The United States has a stake in these questions and in Taiwan’s success,” he said, adding that the US and Taiwan are leading partners in advanced technology development, while the number of Taiwanese students studying in the US is growing and Taiwan is the US’ seventh-largest trading partner.
“Maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is critical for the United States and the entire world,” the AIT director said.
Citing comments by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Greene said the US has a long-standing position on Taiwan that it would not abandon, which is that “we are against any forced, compelled, coercive change in the status of Taiwan.”
“The challenges Taiwan faces are not only challenges for Taiwan, but for the United States, and the entire world,” he said. “A strong, resilient Taiwan, and a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific are the foundations of modernization.”
The conference — organized by the Taiwan Program at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and cosponsored by NTU’s Office of International Affairs — featured panel discussions with academics from Stanford University, NTU and other universities in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, alongside Taiwanese industry leaders, on topics ranging from AI innovation and semiconductor, entrepreneurship, biomedical and healthcare advancements, and Taiwan’s demographic transformation.
Additional reporting by CNA
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report