The man picked to be the next US secretary of defense has warned that the US must be prepared to engage in a military conflict with China over Taiwan, according to Washington news reports that have been given weight by Taipei Times sources.
Robert Gates, who has been nominated to replace US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, presented his assessment of cross-strait tensions in written statements to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday in advance of panel hearings scheduled for next week on his confirmation to the post.
Self-defense
"We should maintain our capabilities to resist China's use of force or coercion against Taiwan and assist Taipei in maintaining its self-defense," Gates said.
Gates wrote that while Beijing appears to want a peaceful merger with Taiwan, China's "near-term focus is on generating sufficient combat power to rapidly erode Taiwan's will to resist and to deter or deny effective intervention in a cross-strait conflict," Associated Press reported.
China is working to become Asia's pre-eminent power, and it is "expanding its political and economic influence in the region and generating options for military coercion," Gates wrote.
Confirmation hearing
Gates' comments were in the form of answers to questions posed by committee members as they prepare to question him on Taiwan and other issues at the confirmation hearing next Tuesday.
Pentagon spokesmen would not supply the text of Gates' answers, saying that as Gates was not yet defense secretary, the defense secretary's office did not have a role in supplying the information to the congressional committee.
Official sources say the White House gave the documents to the committee on Tuesday.
The Washington Post and New York Times ran stories about Gates' testimony in their Wednesday editions, but focused almost exclusively on Gates' comments on Iraq and the Middle East.
The New York Times did not mention China or Taiwan, and the Post only mentioned the issue in a brief reference.
Rumsfeld resigned as defense secretary on Nov. 8, the day after the Democratic Party scored a resounding sweep of both houses of Congress, upending the Republicans in a contest seen as a referendum on Bush's Iraq strategy. Bush immediately named Gates as Rumsfeld's successor.
The Senate is expected to approve the nomination, enabling Gates to take over by the end of the year.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
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 —
RSS