The “courage and tenacity” of Taiwanese was a key takeaway from their visit, a delegation from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said yesterday in a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in Taipei.
The delegation — the first since COVID-19 restrictions were implemented in 2020 — touted strong people-to-people ties between the US and Taiwan.
The group comprise experts on Taiwan-US-China relations, as well as others experienced in Japan, South Korea, Australia and Indo-Pacific affairs.
Photo: CNA
Among the delegation is James Steinberg, dean of Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and Evan Medeiros, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues.
Steinberg expressed admiration on behalf of the delegation for the courage and tenacity exhibited by Taiwanese “when faced with complex challenges.”
The US-Taiwan friendship is built on mutually shared values, and the mutual promise to make a democratic and open society, Steinberg said.
The US understands the importance of acting together and hopes to deepen US-Taiwan ties, he said.
The delegation would have an opportunity to exchange views with Tsai and other Taiwanese officials on issues such as the challenges Taiwan faces and how to respond to such difficulties together, he said.
Tsai said that the delegation would provide many invaluable suggestions to help deepen ties with Washington.
Stability and peace in the Indo-Pacific region is vital to maintain the world order, while Taiwan, which is at the forefront of the democratic alliance’s defense, has staunchly defended the Taiwan Strait, she said.
We look forward to collaborating with our democratic allies, sharing our experiences, and jointly defending Taiwan’s way of life and the democratic values shared by its partners, she added.
Tsai made a special mention of US President Joe Biden this month approving an arms sale to Taiwan — the seventh since he took office — and thanked him for supporting Taiwan’s work to bolster its defenses.
The US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade and similar frameworks would further collaboration in other fields, create a safe and resilient supply chain, deepen ties, and boost freedom, openness and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, she said.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS