A proposal to put Taiwan under the US nuclear umbrella has drawn mostly positive responses from defense experts, after Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan on Monday that Taipei and Washington are engaged in talks on the matter.
Taiwan’s national security doctrine explicitly rejects the development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, despite the nation facing the threat of such weapons being used against it, Institute for National Defense and Security research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said yesterday.
The extension of an ally’s nuclear umbrella over Taiwan would be significantly beneficial to the Taiwan’s security, he said.
Photo: Reuters
The nuclear umbrella is a deterrence strategy developed during the Cold War. The US uses it to guarantee the safety of smaller countries by threatening to retaliate in kind if those allies came under nuclear attack, he said.
Taiwan’s armed forces already provide conventional deterrence, but obtaining a nuclear deterrence would reduce its susceptibility to nuclear coercion, Su said.
Taiwan’s bid to be protected by the US nuclear umbrella would depend on domestic and international factors, including the outcome of the presidential election next year, Lu Hsin-chi (盧信吉), an assistant professor of international politics at National Chung Hsing University, told an Institute for National Policy Research forum on Monday.
The political will of Taiwanese would play a large part in the international community’s perception and assessment of the cross-strait situation, while the forcefulness of China’s reaction would also likely affect the outcome, he said.
If international and domestic conditions align, it would be possible for the US to provide Taiwan with a certain level of nuclear deterrence, including deploying ballistic missile submarines to patrol the nation’s waters, he said.
The threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea has reinvigorated the South Korea-US military alliance, with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration and US officials issuing the Washington Declaration last month, he said.
Expansion of the US nuclear umbrella over South Korea and Japan would potentially pave the way for Taiwan, he said.
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
MORE WARNINGS: If the US company does not clarify and solve issues with its frozen berries, the FDA might extend an import suspension implemented last month, it said The Kaohsiung Department of Health yesterday said it fined Costco NT$4.5 million (US$146,265) over contaminated frozen strawberries, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that although the US company had filed an improvement plan, an import suspension on frozen berries could remain. Three types of frozen berry products imported and sold by Costco have tested positive for the hepatitis A virus since April. The Kaohsiung health department previously fined Costco NT$300,000 for not providing the sales list of a contaminated batch of Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend imported from Chile, in contravention of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法). It later
‘NEGLIGENCE’: After reporting the incident, her superior allegedly asked her why she did not scream, which was an inappropriate attempt to ignore the allegations, critics said An accusation of sexual harassment led to the resignation of a top Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official, while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has called for a thorough investigation into the incident involving a contractor. Vice President and DPP Chairman William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said he approved the resignation of DPP deputy secretary-general Hsu Chia-tien (許嘉恬), who headed the party’s Women’s Development Department when the alleged incident happened in September last year. “Gender equality is among our party’s core values, that we have strived for and advanced along with Taiwanese society,” Lai said. “The DPP did not handle it appropriately at the time,