The Ministry of National Defense yesterday issued a statement refuting rumors that US Marine Corps members are to visit Taiwan to help train Taiwanese troops.
Local media reports on Monday said that US instructors are to begin training Taiwanese marines and amphibious special force units in assault boat and speedboat infiltration operations for four weeks at the Zuoying Naval Base in Kaohsiung.
US Department of Defense spokesman John Supple on Wednesday sent an e-mail to the US military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper to say that news reports about US Marines training Taiwanese soldiers are “inaccurate.”
“The United States remains committed to our ‘one China’ policy,” Supple wrote.
Supple said that US policies should continue to allow Taiwan to obtain services and materials sufficient to allow Taiwan to defend itself while calling on Beijing to cease military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan, and conduct meaningful dialogue with Taiwan.
Ministry spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) yesterday said that rumors that the Marine Raiders, a special operations forces under the US Marine Corps, working with the Republic of China Marine Corps lacked factual basis, calling on the media and others not to propagate false information.
The Republic of China Navy yesterday issued a statement, saying that scheduled exercises between Taiwan and the US are to commence normally, while declining to comment further on the issue.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
WASHED ASHORE: Of the 16 bodies discovered along Taiwan’s west coast this month, two were Vietnamese and five were Taiwanese, coast guard officials said Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that he has instructed prosecutors and maritime authorities to launch investigations after 16 bodies were found along Taiwan’s west coast this month, amid speculation that they were victims of smuggling or human trafficking rings. Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officials said the bodies, most of which had washed ashore, were found by coast guard personnel and local residents along the coastline from Keelung to Kaohsiung. Thirteen of the bodies are male and three are female, the CGA said, adding that items found on the bodies indicate that two of the men were Vietnamese, while three men
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