Japan and the US will declare in a joint agreement tomorrow that security in the Taiwan Strait is a "common strategic objective," The Washington Post said yesterday, citing a draft of the document it obtained.
The agreement will be announced after the US Secretaries of State, Condoleezza Rice, and of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, meet their Japanese counterparts in Washington today, the daily said in its article datelined in Tokyo.
"This is the first time that Japan has made its stance clear; in the past, Japan has been very indirect on the Taiwan issue," said Koh Se-kai, Taiwan's special representative to Japan. "We're relieved that Japan has become more assertive."
There was no immediate reaction from China.
The agreement to be announced tomorrow declaring security in the Taiwan Strait as a "common strategic objective" of Washington and Tokyo is the most significant alteration since 1996 of the US-Japanese Security Alliance, the daily said.
"It would be wrong for us to send a signal to China that the United States and Japan will watch and tolerate China's military invasion of Taiwan," said Shinzo Abe, the acting secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who is widely considered a likely successor to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"If the situation surrounding Japan threatens our security, Japan can provide US forces with support," he added.
"We consider China a friendly country, but it is also unpredictable," an unidentified senior Japanese government official was quoted as saying in The Washington Post.
"If it takes aggressive action, Japan cannot just stand by and watch," he added.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday welcomed the expected agreement.
"Although the MND hasn't received any information about such an agreement from the US or Japan, the MND welcomes any force which could stabilize the Taiwan Strait, " ministry spokesman Rear Admiral Liou Chih-chien (
Liou said that if the US and Japan really see security in the Taiwan Strait as a "common strategic objective," it would enhance Taiwan's determination to defend and deter a military attack from China.
Today's US-Japan talks are a necessary prelude to decisions on how to realign the nearly 50,000 US forces in Japan, part of a global transformation of the US military to cope with new threats such as terrorism.
Japan is leaning toward a bigger role as a strategic hub from which US forces can respond to threats in an "arc of instability" from the Middle East to the Koreas, a shift seen by many experts as an expansion of the alliance.
Both Washington and Tokyo are clearly eyeing Beijing's military buildup askance.
"Beijing's military modernization and military buildup is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait," CIA Director Porter Goss told a Senate panel on Wednesday. "Chinese capabilities threaten US forces in the region."
China quickly denounced the CIA assessment, saying the remarks sent the wrong signal to Taiwan.
Japan has also become increasingly outspoken in expressing its concerns about China's military modernization.
additional reporting by Rich Chang
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS