Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday thanked the US for its bipartisan support of Taiwan’s defense, after US Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview said that Washington must support Taiwan’s ability to defend itself.
The Democratic US presidential candidate in an interview with 60 Minutes broadcast on Monday was asked by journalist Bill Whitaker whether she would militarily defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China.
Declining to “get into hypotheticals,” Harris said that “we need to make sure that we maintain a one China policy.”
Photo: AFP
“But that includes supporting Taiwan’s ability to defend itself, including what we need to do to ensure the freedom of the Taiwan Strait,” she added.
She continued to emphasize the need to keep open communication with China, as well as the need to “win the competition for the 21st century.”
While attending a committee hearing at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Lin thanked the US for its bipartisan support.
The US’ Taiwan Relations Act mandates that Washington assist Taiwan in its self-defense, Lin said.
No matter the ruling party or branch of government, Taiwan has witnessed a strengthening in its relations with the US in recent years, he told lawmakers.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
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