Former minister of foreign affairs David Lee (李大維) shared a behind-the-scenes account of the historic 2016 phone call between then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and then-US president-elect Donald Trump in his memoir, which was published yesterday.
“The book is a recollection of my 40-plus-year career as a diplomat. I want to leave it as a record for future reference — for historians and younger generations,” Lee said during a book launch for his memoir.
In the book, Lee details the background of the phone call on Dec. 2, 2016, the first direct communication between a US president or president-elect and a Taiwanese president since diplomatic ties were severed in 1979.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
When Trump invited Tsai to visit Washington during the 11-minute congratulatory call, Tsai retained her “usual calm composure” and did not give a direct response due to the sensitivity of such a trip, Lee said, adding that the Presidential Office decided not to comment publicly until Trump wrote about the call in a post on X.
Former US assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs Randall Schriver, described in the book as a “long-time friend of Taiwan,” played a key role in facilitating the call, Lee said.
Lee also recounted his historic meeting with then-US national security adviser John Bolton in May 2019, the first time top national security officials from the two sides had met since 1979.
Such “US-Taiwan special channel talks” had been held since March 11, 1996, beginning with a meeting between then-US deputy national security adviser Sandy Berger and then-National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Ting Mao-shih (丁懋時), he said.
That meeting focused on the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis, a conflict triggered by a series of missile tests conducted by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the waters around Taiwan following then-president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) visit to the US and speech at his alma mater, Cornell University, Lee said.
However, the 2019 meeting with Bolton marked the first time Taipei’s and Washington’s top national security advisers participated in direct dialogue, Lee added.
Lee said that although he had served as foreign minister and NSC secretary-general, he still considered himself a diplomat, rather than a politician.
In a pre-recorded speech played during the book launch, Tsai praised Lee as a model career diplomat “who transcends party lines” and serves as the “cornerstone of the country’s long-term development.”
Lee served as top spokesman and deputy minister of foreign affairs during Lee Teng-hui’s administration. He later held diplomatic positions as representative to the EU, the US, Canada and Australia under former presidents Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
His final public service post before retirement was as chair of the Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official organization tasked with handling technical matters involving China, from January 2023 to May last year.
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
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.
‘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
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS