American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Stephen Young said yesterday the US government does not support Taiwan's UN membership bid.
"The US government's stance is clear," he said. "We do not support it because it is unnecessary."
Young made the remarks in Mandarin before attending a Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation event in Taipei yesterday morning.
Asked whether he supported the government's torch relay in support of the UN membership campaign using the name "Taiwan," Young skirted the question by saying he does not jog anymore because he has week knees and that he only climbs Taipei 101 during special events.
In response, Presidential Office spokesman David Lee (
Lee said the administration would continue to communicate with the US government through various channels to facilitate Washington's understanding of the initiative.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said he respected Young's view.
"[Stephen Young] is a representative of a foreign country. We respect him," Hsieh said when asked for comment.
What Young said was "not news" because the US government has been saying the same thing for the past few months, Hsieh said.
"Young was just expressing the US position, though some may have played up his words, [perhaps] because they coincided with the torch relay," Hsieh said.
Hsieh said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had never respected Young, pointing to their reaction to his calling for the passage of a budget request for an arms procurement package from the US.
"Young urged us to pass the budget, but the KMT never listened to him. Now the KMT refer to Young's comments [yesterday] as an imperial edict. It's all about politics," Hsieh said.
Asked to comment on Young's remarks, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said the country's exclusion from the UN was unfair and that seeking to "return" to the UN was the collective goal of the majority of Taiwanese.
"The KMT proposal, which says the country should strive to return to the UN in a flexible and respectful manner, has a better chance of success" than the DPP bid, Ma said.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
RSS