The leader of a US congressional delegation to China yesterday warned of the “risk of a misunderstanding” between the two countries’ militaries as advances in defense technology move at breakneck speed.
US Representative Adam Smith, the most senior Democrat on the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told journalists in Beijing that China needs to talk more about its military with other global powers “for basic de-confliction.”
“We’ve seen this with our ships, our planes, their ships, their planes coming entirely too close to one another,” he told a news conference at the US embassy. “We need to have a better conversation about de-conflicting those things.”
Photo: AFP
“At the height of the Cold War, we had regular conversations, regular treaties with the Soviet Union,” he added.
The four-person delegation — which also includes US representatives Ro Khanna, Chrissy Houlahan and Michael Baumgartner — on Monday met with Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍), with whom they talked about the importance of “working through our differences” and more candid dialogue, a statement from the US side said.
Dong urged the US to “remove disruptive and restrictive factors” between them, China’s Xinhua state news agency reported.
“AI [artificial intelligence] and drone warfare and cyber and space is moving so rapidly and innovation is happening so quickly. The risk of a misunderstanding of capabilities on one side or the other is great,” Smith said, adding that the two sides need to talk so they “don’t stumble in any sort of conflicts.”
He said they were also having issues communicating with the Chinese side on other issues.
“You have to be willing to start the process of saying: ‘OK, this is where I’m coming from, where are you coming from?’ And we’re not even at that point yet. We’re still sort of talking past each other,” he said.
Smith and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) struck a warmer tone during a meeting later yesterday, with Wang telling Smith that China’s door was always open to him.
Smith said he saw room for cooperation between the US and China on issues such as combating poverty and public health crises.
“There are many things that we can work together on because the capabilities of China, the capabilities of the US are the greatest in the world,” he said. “If we work together, there’s no end of the things that we can accomplish.”
Additional reporting by AP
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS