Former US vice president Mike Pence on Monday said that China is close to becoming an “evil empire,” as he called for increased arms sales to Taiwan.
“China is the greatest strategic and economic threat facing the United States in the 21st Century,” Pence said in a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington. “China may not yet be an evil empire — but it is working hard to become one.”
Pence called for increased arms sales to Taiwan, breaking off US economic ties with essential Chinese industries, restricting Chinese nationals working in US technological companies to reduce intellectual property theft and a nationwide ban on Chinese-owned social media TikTok.
Photo: AFP
The Republicans campaigning to become the party’s pick for the election in November next year are almost in unanimous agreement that China is the leading foreign foe of the US.
In the Republican race, the attacks are more frequent and the proposals bolder, political operatives said, thanks to a shift in US public opinion.
About 50 percent of Americans identify China as the greatest threat to the US, a Pew Research poll released in late July showed.
Russia was next, according to 17 percent of respondents.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech investor in the race, is due to deliver a speech tomorrow in which he would lay out his plan for securing economic independence from China.
Fellow rival and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is also due to give a foreign policy speech soon, his aides said.
He is expected to lay out an aggressive stance toward China.
DeSantis has already called for ending normal trade relations with China.
In Florida, he has banned TikTok from government and school-issued devices.
In his speech, Pence amplified a split within the Republican candidates over the war in Ukraine and how China would view the continued US response to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
Pence said it was vital that the US gives all military support necessary to Ukraine so it can defeat Russian forces.
Without naming them, Pence decried what he called the “isolationism” of some rivals — such as Ramaswamy, DeSantis and former US president Donald Trump — who have questioned unchecked military and economic support for Ukraine.
“Consider what would happen if the Republican appeasers are successful in pulling support for Ukraine,” Pence said. “What message would it send to China, except a giant, flashing green light for the Chinese invasion of Taiwan.”
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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