Support for Taiwan in the US is a consensus across party lines and administrations, and the US has repeatedly emphasized the importance of Taiwan, showing that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is a global consensus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
“I know the people very well, respect them greatly. They did take about 100 percent of our chip business. I think Taiwan should pay us for defense,” former US president and presidential candidate Donald Trump said in a Blomberg interview on Tuesday.
Department of North American Affairs Deputy Director Chiao Kuo-you (焦國祐) said the ministry does not comment on the speeches of US presidential candidates, adding that US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller, US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, Congressional Taiwan Caucus cochair Mario Diaz-Balart, and former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien Jr have all made statements emphasizing the importance of Taiwan and US-Taiwan relations.
Photo: CNA
The US has been working with like-minded countries to make peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait not just a US-Taiwan consensus, but also an international one, Chiao said.
He said that Taiwan would work with like-minded countries and step up national defense capabilities to jointly uphold regional peace and stability, he said.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Lin Yi-chun (林憶君) said that Taiwan’s national defense spending was higher than the average member country of NATO, and its defense capabilities did not lag that far behind most advanced countries.
The US is the greatest benefactor from the current international order, and maintaining such a world order, regardless of who is elected to office, would require the US to work together with its regional allies, which includes Taiwan, Lin said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said Taiwan has to be self-reliant, adding that it was a mistake to be 100 percent reliant on the US.
O’Brien told Bloomberg that “the Taiwanese have to want their freedom and independence as much as we want it for them.”
“I can’t care more about Taiwan, to send my daughters to defend Taiwan, if the Taiwanese themselves wouldn’t defend Taiwan. And so we need to see the will of the Taiwanese people,” he said, adding, “They need to step up to the plate.”
O’Brien has two daughters who are serving in the US armed forces.
Council on Foreign Relations fellow for Asia studies David Sacks said: “If I was in Taiwan, I would take this statement seriously because it is not an isolated remark — there is now a pattern.”
“This statement, in particular, epitomizes Trumpism because it reflects his purely transactional view of foreign policy,” he added.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
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