US veterans could leverage their influence to push for broad-based cooperation with Taiwan, furthered by closer personal ties that would be fostered by a Veterans Affairs Council (VAC) mission soon to open in Washington, an analyst said.
While meeting a US congressional delegation in Taipei on Friday, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced that an official VAC mission would be established early next year.
The move is aimed at helping Taiwan “better coordinate and expand exchanges in health insurance, quality healthcare, employment assistance and long-term care for veterans,” Tsai said.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The council has in the past had limited interaction with senior US Department of Veterans Affairs officials, said Wong Ming-hsien (翁明賢), director of Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies.
However, civic veterans’ organizations in the US have long maintained close contact with Taiwan, even flying the Republic of China flag in some cases, Wong said in an interview on Saturday.
Since Tsai took office in 2016, three major US veterans’ groups — the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and AMVETS — have sent representatives to Taiwan, he said.
In 2019, Tsai delivered a video address at the national convention of the American Legion, the largest veterans’ organization in the US, he added.
Lee Che-chuan (李哲全), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, agreed that the VAC mission would bolster interaction between Taiwan and the US.
It would also lead to more comprehensive exchanges in the manner of normal diplomatic relations, he added.
As it has a relatively low profile, the council could through its Washington mission assist from the sidelines in reforming the nation’s reserve forces, Lee said.
Veterans, in addition to active-duty personnel, play an important role in national defense, he said, adding that this is a crucial part of military exchanges with the US.
The VAC mission, paired with an invitation to attend next month’s Summit for Democracy, shows US commitment to upholding the 2018 Taiwan Travel Act, which allows for high-level visits between the two nations, Wong said.
Increased exchanges in the national security field also show that the US is not allowing China to influence its relations with Taiwan, he added.
The mission could facilitate visits by Taiwanese veterans to the US to meet their counterparts, indirectly boosting military cooperation by deepening personal relationships, Wong said.
US veterans also hold significant influence in the US Congress, and could potentially leverage this influence to push for closer relations between Taiwan and the US, he added.
SCANDAL: There are still discussions over whether a ban from being coaches, referees or agents should be imposed on the players, the association said The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA), Taiwan’s basketball governing body, on Tuesday said that it has handed lifetime bans to 10 players accused of game-fixing and breaches of betting rules. In a statement on Tuesday, the CTBA said it has revoked the registration of nine former players from the semi-professional Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Yulon Lexgen Dinos and one from the Taiwan Beer Leopards of the professional T1 League. The nine former Dinos players are Ko Min-hao (柯旻豪), Chiu Chung-po (邱忠博), Chen Pin-chuan (陳品銓), Huang Hsuan-min (黃鉉閔), Wu Yu-jen (吳祐任), Chou Wei-chen (周暐宸), Yen Wen-tso (顏聞佐), Lee Chi-en (李其恩), and Senegalese center
It took director Chong Keat Aun (張吉安) nearly a decade to complete Snow in Midsummer (五月雪), a deft chronicle of Malaysia’s May 13 incident told through one woman’s search for her brother and father. Although only his second feature, it led the field at yesterday’s Golden Horse Awards with nine nominations. Chong said it had been a struggle to get people to share their memories of the intercommunal violence following the 1969 national election, known among the country’s ethnic Chinese community as “513.” “My father, for example, would shut the conversation down if my mother or grandma even mentioned the topic,” Chong said
A new poll of Taiwanese voters found the top opposition candidate for president jumping past the ruling party’s hopeful into the lead position ahead of January’s election — the latest twist in a drama-filled race. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had an approval rating of 31.9 percent versus 29.2 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), ranked third with 23.6 percent, according to the survey conducted
NOT TOO LATE: Hou urged Ko to ‘think things over,’ adding that there were still 48 hours to change his mind, as the TPP picked up registration forms in Taipei Focusing on polling disputes between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) is not conducive toward collaboration, the campaign office manager of the TPP’s presidential candidate, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), said yesterday. Vivian Huang’s (黃珊珊) comments came after New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the KMT’s presidential candidate, on Tuesday called for both sides to return to the table for further talks about forming a joint ticket for the election on Jan. 13. Hou had suggested that the parties each pick two experts to re-evaluate the polling results to determine who was favored to lead the ticket, and
RSS