President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in a recent interview with CNN that her decision on whether to accept an invitation to address the US Congress would depend on three major considerations.
While ties with the US improved after US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, in the interview with CNN correspondent Matt Rivers on Monday, Tsai said that it was not a simple decision to make and would require “comprehensive consideration.”
“From our perspective, would we accept such an invitation if it were extended? We would have to look at it from several angles,” Tsai said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Tsai laid out three major considerations: “Would delivering an address in Washington DC be in the interests of Taiwan, benefit Taiwan-US relations, and serve peace and stability in the region?”
On Feb. 7, a group of US senators wrote a joint letter to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling on her to invite Tsai to address a joint session of the US Congress.
The letter was signed by Cory Gardner, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.
Some US politicians have opposed the proposal, with former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Richard Bush saying that it was flawed, as it would not be conducive to US relations with China and would hurt Taiwan.
Former US deputy assistant secretary of state Susan Shirk even said the proposal was a “huge mistake,” adding that it would be highly irresponsible for Trump to use Taiwan as leverage in dealing with China.
Tsai, who came to power in May 2016, also said in the interview that she intended to seek re-election next year.
According to CNN, Tsai, throughout the interview, painted the picture that Taiwan was facing down the growing might of China.
Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) called for the peaceful unification of China and Taiwan, but declined to discount the use of force.
“Chairman Xi Jinping’s New Year’s address alerted Taiwan to the fact that its independent existence could be changed, because Xi has started to talk about unification and the ‘one country, two systems’ concept,” Tsai told CNN.
When asked “if China invaded tomorrow, would you count on the US military to be there?” Tsai said that Taiwan has been strengthening its military capability.
“Our defenses are well-prepared for an attack at any time — for any situation where we would need to fend China off for 24 hours,” Tsai said. “So we would hope that after withstanding any first wave of attacks ourselves, other countries throughout the world would stand up in unison and put strong pressure upon China in response.”
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
RSS