The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday passed a bipartisan resolution in support of Lithuania’s relationship with Taiwan.
Lithuania faced retaliation from Beijing for allowing Taiwan to open the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius in November last year, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the two. China reacted by recalling its ambassador from Vilnius and expelling Lithuania’s ambassador from Beijing. It also imposed economic sanctions against Lithuania, including the suspension of direct freight train services to the Baltic state.
The resolution, introduced by US senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen on Nov. 5 last year, commended the Lithuanian government “for its resolve in increasing ties with Taiwan and supporting its firm stance against coercion by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP].”
Photo: Bloomberg
The Senate “commits to supporting Lithuania and Taiwan in the face of these challenges, including by exploring ways to increase economic cooperation with both counties,” it says, adding that the Senate “encourages European allies to continue to stand in solidarity with Lithuania against aggression from the government of the People’s Republic of China.”
The Senate “supports Taiwan in its struggle against CPP malign influence, coercion and aggression, which threatens not only the Taiwanese people and countries in the Indo-Pacific [region], but also any nation around the world that enacts policies or positions that are inconsistent with those of the CPP,” it added.
In a joint news release, Risch, a Republican, said that “Lithuania deserves recognition for its decision to stand with Taiwan, despite the backlash it receives from Beijing.”
Photo: Reuters
“Our resolution sends a signal to all our allies that when you make the moral choice to stand with a fellow democracy and stand up to coercive authoritarian pressure, you can trust your allies will be united with you,” Risch said.
Shaheen, a Democrat, added that the “committee’s bipartisan approval of our resolution sends a powerful message to China that the US will not sit idly by as it seeks to impose its views and use economic manipulation against Lithuania and other democracies throughout eastern Europe.”
“Now more than ever, the US must take every opportunity to make clear to authoritarian regimes and strongmen around the world that we will not tolerate malign behavior that threatens our world order or the stability of liberal democracies,” Shaheen said.
The nonbinding resolution next goes to the Senate floor for a vote.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS