US and EU officials will meet next week to initiate a strategic dialogue on Asia that will center on the EU's efforts to lift its arms embargo on China, the impact on Taiwan, and American efforts to block the EU action, US Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns announced in Washington on Thursday.
Burns disclosed the plans for the dialogue at a joint hearing of the House International Relations Committee and the House Arms Services Committee on the arms embargo issue. The hearing came amid strong congressional concern over the implications of lifting the ban for Taiwan and for the US strategic position in East Asia.
The Europeans have been pushing for a strategic dialogue since early this year in response to fervent opposition by Washington to Europe's plan to expand arms sales to Beijing. An EU delegation to Washington last month received a favorable response from US officials to their proposal for a strategic dialogue, and Burns, speaking in London last week, signaled the Bush administration's acceptance of the idea.
He repeated that during Thursday's hearing.
"What is now abundantly clear is that there is a great need to undertake a strategic dialogue with the EU on this issue [the embargo]," Burns said.
"And we will soon begin, in fact next week, a dialogue with the European Union where we will describe our interests in the United States of America as the guarantor of peace and security in Asia and the Pacific region, and in the Straits of Taiwan itself. And that strategic dialogue is long overdue, the EU has agreed to have it, and we think it might assist in resolving this dispute," Burns said.
"This will not be a negotiation over terms for lifting the embargo, but a means of ensuring, among other goals, that EU members understand the real dangers to regional security that lifting the embargo would pose," he said.
Burns reiterated US concerns that lifting the embargo would affect regional stability and hurt US security interests, and send the wrong signal in view of China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
Citing President George W. Bush's statement in February in Brussels that a transfer of technology to China would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan, Burns said, "lifting the embargo now could also be seen as an endorsement of China's recent anti-secession legislation."
Later, he said the Anti-Secession Law had "backfired" on China by prompting Europe to reconsider its decision to lift the arms embargo, and bolstering the impact of American objections to the lifting.
Burns also echoed administration complaints about a lack of progress in China's human rights record.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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