Several US lawmakers are to travel to Taiwan in the next few weeks to show support for president-elect William Lai (賴清德), the Financial Times reported yesterday.
US Representative Ami Bera, the Democratic ranking member of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, is to visit next week, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the plans.
He is to be joined by two other cochairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, Republican representatives Andy Barr and Mario Diaz-Balart, it reported.
Photo: Bloomberg
US Representative Mike Gallagher, who chairs the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, is expected to travel to Taiwan after the first delegation, it added.
The delegation next week is to meet with Lai, but not the losing candidates, the paper cited one person familiar with the planning as saying.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this week said that he would ask the Republican chairs of “relevant” committees to travel to Taiwan after Lai’s inauguration in May, the Financial Times said.
Gallagher declined to comment to the paper on his visit and whether he would be leading a delegation.
More congressional delegations are expected around the inauguration as well as in March or April to mark the 45th anniversary of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act, it said.
The paper quoted an academic based in Taipei as saying that a delegation from the the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party would be more inflammatory to Beijing.
“China would certainly go mad over a delegation of [US House] China committee members,” Tamkang University foreign policy expert James Chen (陳奕帆) said. “A visit by members of the Taiwan caucus would be less sensitive because many of them are not necessarily anti-China, while the China committee clearly treats China as a target.”
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
A British man was arrested for attempting to smuggle 14.37kg of marijuana into Taiwan through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Customs said late yesterday. The man, who arrived from Bangkok at 9pm on Friday, was asked by customs officers to open his luggage during a random inspection, Taipei Customs said in a news release. The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, refused to open his suitcase and tried to flee the restricted area. He was eventually subdued by three customs officials and an Aviation Police Bureau officer. A later search of his checked luggage uncovered 14.37kg of marijuana buds. The case was handed over
RSS