The Bush administration has dismissed as moot talk that Washington might seek the dispatch of Taiwanese marines to Iraq, saying that Taiwan has not made such an offer nor has the US asked for it.
"I would point out that Taiwan has not offered the dispatch of troops and we're not seeking such a contribution," Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters on Monday.
"It's really a moot point," he said.
Boucher made the comments in response to questions at his regular daily news briefing.
In his response, he praised Taiwan's contribution to humanitarian aid to Iraq, saying, "We do value the contributions that Taiwan is making."
Boucher noted that Taiwan contributed US$4.4 million in humanitarian assistance to Iraq after major combat ended last year, including medicines, blankets and food, and computers to the new Iraqi education ministry.
"We thank Taiwan for their contributions," he said.
Boucher was answering questions stemming from a resolution introduced in the House of Representatives last week by two congressmen, asking President George W. Bush to request that President Chen Shui-bian (
The resolution, sponsored by two Republicans, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a co-chairman of the Taiwan Congressional Caucus, and Representative Jim Ryun, is one of thousands of bills introduced in Congress every year, only few of which survive the legislative process.
An aide to Rohrabacher told the Taipei Times on Monday that the idea for the resolution came from a May 16 Los Angeles Times story that quoted DPP Legislator Parris Chang (
The resolution picked up on that idea, and that wording, in its justification for seeking other congressmen to support and vote for the resolution.
Congressional lobbying group the Formosan Association for Public Affairs said in a news release that the idea was first brought up in an April 27 article by William Triplett, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee aide and prominent conservative political thinker, that explored the possibility of Taiwan's sending troops to Iraq.
"We sort of kicked the idea around and said, `the troops should be there.' They're a democracy and they're a part of the world community," and should be asked to participate, the Rohrabacher aide said.
"This might get Taiwan off the dime," he said. "They were considering it and this could help them along in the process."
A legislative aide to Ryun, Jim Richardson, said the idea "was to put Congress on record, to let the administration know and hopefully they'll support the idea that there is a need in Iraq for additional troops. The United States has asked every other society in the world to contribute and it must make sense to ask Taiwan to contribute troops as well."
The Presidential Office has denied that was considering sending troops to Iraq.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS