Several areas of Taiwan-US relations would require improvement after National Security Council member Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) takes over as representative to the US, an academic said yesterday, citing China’s continuous military intimidation of Taiwan.
Although the fundamentals of Taiwan-US relations appear to be in good shape, some areas still need “more delicate communication,” such as finding a solution to China’s continuous harassment of other countries in the region and its military intimidation of Taiwan, Taiwan Think Tank consultant Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said.
The two sides should also discuss how their militaries can cooperate more closely and how Taiwan should respond to US expectations of national defense reform, Lai added.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Hsiao, a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator, has been appointed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as the nation’s de facto ambassador to the US, becoming the first woman to ever serve in the post.
However, the dates of her departure to the US and the beginning of her official duties have yet to be disclosed.
As the US is to hold its presidential election in November, Taiwan should strive to prevent any major shifts in bilateral relations in the event of a change in the US administration, Lai said.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that the US Congress during the administration of US President Donald Trump has passed numerous acts friendly toward Taiwan, such as the Taiwan Travel Act and the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020.
However, “closer ties between the two nations in recent years have been based on the passage of laws, lacking executable items that yield concrete results,” Wang said, adding that utilizing opportunities through the legislation is key to achieving breakthroughs in bilateral relations.
Taiwan-US relations could alter drastically in the near term in the face of multiple challenges and opportunities, such as economic problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing US-China relations, Hsiao said on Facebook on June 18, two days after her appointment.
Pressing matters that need to be handled include stalled progress on bilateral free-trade agreements and talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, observers have said.
Taiwan’s ban on imports of US pork containing ractopamine and some beef products should also be addressed via practical means, they said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS