A group of US congressmen have expressed support for President Chen Shui-bian's (
A major pro-independence Taiwan lobbying group has also called on President George W. Bush to repudiate the State Department's position opposing Chen's plan. In doing so, the group has echoed statements by other Taiwanese officials who resent the hard line taken by the department's China policymakers, and rejected reports that Bush himself was angry at Chen's remarks.
Chen made the original remarks about the National Unification Council in a Lunar New Year's address, in which he also pushed for Taiwan to try to enter the UN under the name Taiwan and for a new constitution to be put to referendum next year.
"Chen Shui-bian is a man of peace," three members of the House of Representatives said in statements on the House floor on Wednesday.
The three congressmen, all Republicans, were Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Pete Sessions of Texas and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.
Addressing the unification question, Garrett said that the NUC "has long had its effectiveness in question," adding that Chen "does not want to see unification become the only option for cross-strait relations."
"China must learn to respect the aspirations of Taiwan's 23 million people who want to be masters of their own land," Garrett said, in comments repeated by Sessions and Foxx. "Taiwan is a free and democratic nation and deserves to be treated with respect by the international community."
Sessions cited the House's 424-4 vote last spring that blasted China's passage of the "Anti-Secession" Law.
"China has no justification to change the status quo either through the `Anti-Secession Law' or military intimidation," he said.
Foxx recalled that over the past six years Chen has "kept his pledge" not to seek to change the status-quo in the Strait, and has "offered many goodwill gestures to China."
"Let's hope that China will reciprocate Chen's olive branch by renouncing the use of force against Taiwan and resuming dialogue on an equal footing and without preconditions," she and her House colleagues said.
Last week, the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), a pro-independence lobby, sent Bush a letter urging him to "show strong support and encouragement for Taiwan's fragile democracy and side with the democratic forces on the island, instead of inhibiting creative thinking about Taiwan's future."
The letter said that the recent State Department comments "inhibit a constructive dialogue and a further positive enhancement of relations between the United States and Taiwan."
By telling Taiwan not to change the status quo, "The US is preventing the island from ridding itself of the anachronistic remnants of its repressive past [under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)], while it gives China a say in decision-making on a democratic Taiwan's future that should be made solely by the Taiwanese people themselves," the Feb. 3 letter said.
It also called on the US to "gradually work towards normalization of relations" with Taiwan.
"The constant reiteration of the `One China' policy is not helpful," said the letter, which was signed by FAPA president C.T. Lee (
A copy of the letter was also sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Meanwhile, in Taipei, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday submitted a letter to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to appeal for Bush's support for Chen's proposals to abolish the NUC. The TSU urged the US to abide by its founding principles in supporting Taiwanese people's freedom to decide their own future.
The letter was accepted by an AIT security official yesterday, but the institute made no comment on the letter.
Additional reporting by Chang Yun-ping
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat