A leading critic of Taiwan in the US Congress has warned Taiwan not to cause "another problem" for the US at a time when its military is heavily involved in Iraq and elsewhere.
Senator John Warner, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and committee chairman until the Democratic Party took control of Congress in January, warned Taiwan's leaders not to "play the Taiwan Relations [Act] (TRA)."
He was referring to the provision of the Act that commits US forces to maintain a state of readiness to assist Taiwan in case of an escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Warner made the comments during his questioning of the new US forces commander in the Pacific, Admiral Timothy Keating, at a committee hearing that dealt with security issues affecting the Asia-Pacific region.
It was not the first time Warner has issued such a warning. Last year, when he was chairman, he said that the US might not be willing to aid Taiwan against a Chinese invasion or other hostile military acts, as called for in the TRA, if Taiwan was seen as provoking Beijing.
"Sometimes tempers flare [in Taiwan] and in such a way that it could trigger unintentional consequences," Warner said at the hearing on Tuesday.
"And I hope Taiwan recognizes that the United States of America is heavily engaged militarily worldwide. And we do not need another problem in that region," he said.
"So I hope they don't try to play the Taiwan Relations card to their advantage," he said.
Optimistic
Keating expressed his optimism that Taiwan would not act against US interests.
"I'm very confident that Taiwan understand[s] our position," he told Warner. "They understand how emphatically we emphasize to them that their actions should be defensive in nature and not offensive, and that we remain committed to helping them provide for their defense."
"But it is very much, very much in their interest not to conduct themselves, either by speech or by action, in a way that could be misconstrued by China in unfortunate ways," he added.
Keating said that the US had a sent a team of observers, headed by retired Admiral Dennis Blair, to this year's annual Han Kuang exercises, but that he had yet to receive a briefing from them.
Keating later told reporters that the "purpose of observing the exercises" was to "ensure that [Taiwan] understand[s]" the US position that Taiwanese are "to defend themselves and not take offensive actions," and to assure Taiwan "we would be prepared to help them provide for [their] defense."
In other matters, Keating downplayed the threat posed by the Chinese navy, saying "they are a long, long way from challenging us in a maritime domain."
"They're pretty good and getting better," Keating told the senators.
The Chinese have joined the US navy in "rudimentary" search and rescue operations, he noted.
"Their skills in those exercises were average. And these are fairy simple exercises," he said.
The issue of Chinese naval prowess is important to Taiwan in that any conflict in the Strait would heavily depend on naval forces or other forces operating in a maritime environment.
Taiwan would expect the US to send naval forces to the Strait to help defend against the Chinese military, and the Pentagon has pointed to a concerted Chinese effort to find ways to deny US access to the Taiwan Strait in case it wanted to attack Taiwan.
The Chinese "are nowhere close to as capable as our United States Navy," Keating said.
"We see their growth rate as not being insignificant in terms of capability and equipment, but they are a long, long way from challenging us in a maritime domain," he said.
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 —