The Presidential Office yesterday criticized the Chinese-language United Daily News after it reported that US Senator Lindsey Graham had a business agenda when he visited Taiwan in the middle of this month.
The newspaper yesterday reported that Graham, the ranking member of the US Senate Budget Committee, was “forcefully” trying to convince the government to buy commercial airplanes made by US-based Boeing Co.
Graham led a congressional delegation to Taiwan on April 14 and 15, during which he met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other top government officials.
Photo: AP, courtesy of the Presidential Office
The report was based on two public statements by Graham.
During the delegation’s meeting with Tsai at the Presidential Office in Taipei on April 15, Graham said he hoped Taiwan would buy Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jets.
The senator from South Carolina relayed this message again in a statement on Friday last week, saying: “I’m hoping in the coming weeks that Taiwan will announce that they’re going to buy 24 787 wide-body jets made by Boeing.”
“That would be a US$8 billion package,” he said. “It would be a tremendous boost to Boeing in South Carolina, and I’m hoping Taiwan will make that decision.”
Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) yesterday said that the article did nothing good for Taiwan’s relationship with the US.
Separately, Department of North American Affairs Director-General Douglas Hsu (徐佑典) said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “deeply regrets” the report, as it distorted the senator’s comments and harmed Taiwan’s relationship with the US.
Graham’s remarks should be seen in the context of an elected representative seeking the best for his constituents, which is entirely normal in democracies, Hsu said.
The government applies a rigorous vetting process to foreign companies that intend to do business in Taiwan to protect the nation’s interests and the local economy, he said.
Taiwan and the US are close partners in matters of trade, and bilateral exchanges on goods and investments are important to the prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
“The ministry calls on certain media firms to display the professionalism they are expected to have and to provide the public with factually correct information, instead of deliberately spreading untrue stories,” Hsu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said the reason for the delegation’s visit to Taiwan was to improve the nation’s security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not to generate business for Boeing.
Lawmakers such as Graham should not be slammed for supporting their constituents’ livelihoods, just as Taiwanese lawmakers should not be criticized when they promote locally made products while abroad, Wang said.
“It would be absurd if [foreign] media reported that our lawmakers were forcing pineapples on their country,” he said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS