US Republican senators on Thursday introduced a bill to set up the US for success in its competition against China, with provisions that included support for Taiwan.
“The STRATEGIC Act comes at an important time as the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] continues its efforts to undermine security and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” US Senator Todd Young said.
The legislative package “contains several critical initiatives to counter the CCP, strengthen American supply chains and bolster American support for Taiwan,” he said.
Photo: Will Oliver, EPA-EFE
The bill seeks to protect the interests of the US and its allies in the region, and would work to counter the China’s global influence, US Senator Dan Sullivan said, adding that it contains measures such as antitrust reform to crack down on China’s predatory economic behavior and a boost in US support for Taiwan.
A State and Treasury departments “Tiger Team” would be etablished to identify “targets for sanctions, export controls and other economic measures well before China takes military action” against Taiwan.
A provision on the “Treatment of the government of Taiwan,” also states the US should “treat the democratically elected government of Taiwan as the legitimate representative of the people of Taiwan” and “end the outdated practice of referring to the government of Taiwan as the ‘authorities.’” Additionally, it would require the US to cease any restrictions on interactions with Taiwan counterparts, including visits and displays of national symbols.
It would also allow for the transfer of “obsolete or surplus items” to Taiwan, and those “intended for use as reserve stock.”
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
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