The US has welcomed president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) commitment to maintaining the “status quo,” American Institute in Taiwan Chair Laura Rosenberger said on Friday in an online interview with a US think tank.
Relations with the incoming administration were in good shape, Rosenberger said to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, which held the virtual event to mark the 45th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
“I’ve had the opportunity twice in two trips since the elections to engage with president-elect Lai and members of his team, to make sure again that we are in a solid place to continue the work going forward,” she said, referring to visits she made in January and this month.
Photo: CNA
“He’s been really clear in terms of his policy priorities, including his commitment to maintaining the status quo, which we, of course, very much welcome,” Rosenberger said on her conversations with Lai.
The TRA was signed into law on April 10, 1979, by then-US president Jimmy Carter after it was enacted by the US Congress a month earlier, in response to the US breaking off diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
“The TRA to my mind has provided a foundation for really everything we are doing to broaden and deepen the relationship,” she said, praising it as “a very insightful and prescient piece of legislation.”
Rosenberger said the TRA was not only about commitments to ensure Taiwan maintains sufficient self-defense capacity, but also “that the US should maintain the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion.”
“I think that’s an important commitment. And you see the US continuing to do work, both ourselves and with allies and partners in the region, to reinforce deterrence in the Indo-Pacific to maintain that critical peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” she said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS