US President Donald Trump yesterday declined to comment in response to a question about whether the US would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.
"I never comment on that," Trump said at the White House. "I don't want to ever put myself in that position."
Trump spoke during a Cabinet meeting in response to a reporter's question about whether it was his policy that China would never take Taiwan by force while he is president.
He said he intended to have good relations with China, including cross-border investment, despite his imposition of tariffs on goods from the country.
In a separate interview with Fox News, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the government had a longstanding position on Taiwan it was not going to abandon, namely being against any forced or coercive change in Taiwan's status.
"America has existing commitments that it has made to prevent that from happening and to react to it, and that would be executed on....the Chinese are aware of this as well," he said, when asked what the US would do if China attacked Taiwan.
The US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 and has long said it does not support a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan.
It does, however, maintain unofficial relations with Taiwan and remains its most important backer and arms supplier under a law that requires Washington to provide Taiwan with a means to defend itself.
The US has long stuck to a policy of "strategic ambiguity," not making clear whether it would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan.
Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, took a different approach during his time in office, saying that US forces would defend Taiwan if China were to attack it.
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