President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday rejected President Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) invitation to attend a military exercise to be held by the National Security Council between April 25 and April 27.
The drill, code-named Yushan, is held annually to simulate crisis scenarios.
Ma’s spokesman Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said that Ma’s schedule was fully booked for the dates in question and he would not be able to accompany the president. Luo declined to specify what events Ma had scheduled.
Luo said that it was the government’s duty and obligation to hold the drill, regardless of Ma’s attendance.
The Presidential Office yesterday expressed regret that Ma would not attend.
An official from the Presidential Office, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was unfortunate that Ma had declined the invitation because he would miss an opportunity to learn about the operations of the national security system.
The drill will proceed as scheduled, with or without Ma, the official said.
The Presidential Office began power transfer procedures following a meeting between Chen and Ma on April 1 and between Ma’s campaign manager Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) and National Security Council Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) on April 3, the official said.
The Presidential Office would provide all necessary assistance to the president-elect and vice president-elect, should they have any requests concerning information on national defense, cross-strait relations or foreign affairs, the official said.
Although Ma will not attend the Yushan military drill, the official said, there were other channels available for him to learn about the nation’s national defense, as well as relations with China and other countries.
Meanwhile, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday said she hoped Ma would reconsider the invitation to observe the military drill.
Lu said she proposed at a high-level military meeting that the Yushan drill be rescheduled to accommodate Ma.
Lu said she did not know why Ma would not attend the event, adding that national security was an important matter that required in-depth knowledge.
In related news, Ma yesterday paid a visit to former Control Yuan president Fredrick Chien (錢復), also a former foreign affairs minister, to discuss cross-strait issues and the Control Yuan’s functions.
Ma said that he agreed with Chien that cross-strait relations were key to the nation’s foreign affairs policies and that improving the cross-strait relations would help solve many of the diplomatic difficulties experienced by the government.
“Most of our diplomatic problems come from the other side of the Taiwan Strait. We need to solve these issues from the roots,” Ma said yesterday after the 50-minute meeting with Chien at Taipei Guotai Financial Center.
Commenting on the Control Yuan, Chien urged Ma to find people with virtue and talent to serve as members of the government’s watchdog body.
The seats of the Control Yuan have remained vacant since the term of the previous members expired in January 2005 because of a pan-blue boycott of the president’s nominees.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS