The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) expressed deep regret yesterday over Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing's (
In his talks with Rice Thursday, Li urged the US government to stop selling advanced arms, to halt official engagements and to stop helping Taiwan to participate in international organizations where statehood is required for membership.
However, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
"The US will stick to the Taiwan Relations Act [TRA]," he said.
Li "strongly" urged the US to understand the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and the "gravity" of the current situation.
Anna Kao (
By making the remarks, Li not only interfered in the development of US-Taiwan relations, he also attempted to undermine the 2001 agreement in which the US agreed to continue selling defensive weapons to Taiwan, Kao noted.
Kao said Li's remarks are not conducive to positive growth in the development of cross-Strait relations.
Saying that Taiwan has purchased arms only for self-defense -- rather than for military assault -- Kao said China's demand that the US stop selling weaponry to Taiwan reflects Beijing's mentality that it will not renounce using force against Taiwan to solve differences.
Kao said the MOFA believes that Washington will continue to observe its commitment to the TRA and the Six Assurances, under which the US has pledged to provide Taiwan with sufficient defense capabilities to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The MOFA also firmly believes that US support for Taiwan, including support for Taiwan's bid to participate in various international organizations, will not change because of Beijing's demands, Kao said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS