China's efforts to block Taiwan's participation in international organizations has placed roadblocks on the global war on terrorism by hampering the activities of international groups trying to combat terrorism, the State Department declared on Friday.
In an annual report on world terrorism trends and counterterrorism activities, the department cited incidences in which China's anti-Taiwan activities have hurt initiatives to fight terrorism in East Asia and have affected worldwide cooperation against money laundering by terrorist groups.
In one case, the department cited China's opposition to Taiwan's participation in an APEC initiative to inspect civilian airports in the region to assess vulnerabilities.
While China has agreed to join, it continues to object to Taiwan's participation, and has argued that APEC should not expand beyond the organization's primary role of dealing with economic issues and of trade liberalization, the report said.
"China's objections to Taiwan's participation have impeded broader cooperation on APEC counterterrorism and nonproliferation initiatives," the department's report said.
In another case, the report notes that China has balked at joining the Financial Action Task Force, a broad international coalition whose mission is fighting money laundering by terrorist groups.
Joining the task force has been an important priority for Beijing, which has had observer status in the organization since last year and has taken steps to satisfying the criteria for membership in the group.
"However," the report says, "China's refusal to recognize the Egmont Group, an umbrella body coordinating the activities of over 100 FIUs worldwide, because the group includes an FIU from Taiwan, remains a substantial obstacle to joining FATF."
FIU's are Financial Intelligence Units, which make up the Egmont Group, a network of 101 countries that have created such centers to collect information on suspicious or unusual financial activities from the countries' financial industries to combat terrorist funding and other financial crime.
Taiwan's FIU is its Money Laundering Prevention Center (MLPC).
In contrast to those comments on China, the department took favorable note of a number of actions taken recently by Taiwan to help the war on international terrorism.
For one, the department praised Taiwan's actions as a member of the Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Group on money laundering.
"Taiwan continued to provide rapid and thorough responses on terrorist finance issues and brought to US attention a number of suspected transactions," the report said.
The report also cited other actions Taiwan has taken in the fight against terror, including the establishment in January last year of a cabinet-level Counterterrorism Office (CTO) to oversee and coordinate an interagency response to terrorism in Taiwan and the region. While the CTO's main mission is anti-terrorism, the report notes that the government plans to broaden its scope to include crisis management and disaster preparedness by creating a new Ministry of Interior and Homeland Affairs.
The State Department also recalled that last September Taiwan joined Washington's Container Security Initiative with operations in the port of Kaohsiung, to identify and target shipping containers that pose a terrorist risk. Preliminary talks are being held to expand the initiative to Keelung, and Taiwan has expressed its willingness to join a US "Megaports" program to help curb trafficking in radioactive materials.
The report also noted that the Minister of Justice has drafted a new "antiterrorist action" law modeled on the US Patriot Act. The Executive Yuan is reviewing the draft.
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