Legislative Speaker You Si-kun on Monday was visiting the US Capitol, where he was planning to meet with members of a committee focused on competition with China as the administration of US President Joe Biden readies a US$500 million fast-tracked weapons package for Taiwan.
You was due to meet with members of the US House of Representatives Committee on Competition with China to discuss deepening economic and security ties, said a person familiar with the plans who discussed them on Monday on condition of anonymity.
US Representative Mike Gallagher, the committee’s chair, said in a statement that the US needs to “arm Taiwan to the teeth” to head off a potential invasion by China. Lawmakers have pushed the Biden administration to free up a backlog of US weapons sales.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“The United States needs to deliver on our promises and clear the US$19 billion weapons backlog to Taiwan, conduct enhanced joint military training and reinforce our military posture throughout the region,” Gallagher said in a statement. “Deterring war is the only path to peace and stability, and it is incumbent upon elected officials to take decisive action to do so before it’s too late.”
Biden is looking to do so — possibly this week — with a US$500 million weapons package for Taiwan, people familiar with the plans said.
The administration plans to send weapons and support equipment from existing US stockpiles under what is known as the Presidential Drawdown Authority. It is the same fast-track authority the US has used to arm Ukraine.
China has protested past meetings between US and Taiwanese officials, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in California last month and a trip by McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan last year.
You on Monday morning was seen leaving McCarthy’s suite of offices at the Capitol, but McCarthy said he had not met with the speaker personally.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS