US President George W. Bush unveiled new aid for the typhoon-battered Philippines and praised Vietnam’s “noteworthy” progress on religious freedom in talks on Tuesday with their visiting leaders.
Bush offered “deep condolences” to Philippine President Gloria Arroyo over devastating Typhoon Fengshen and said he was sending a US aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, and other US Navy resources to help with relief efforts.
“This is a time where America needs to step up, and we will,” he told her as they met in the Oval Office. “We are happy to do it, we want to help our friends in a time of need.”
Arroyo, whose popularity is the lowest in three years as soaring prices slow growth and slash incomes, spoke in Filipino, which was not translated.
Afterwards, Bush joked: “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Later, he met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, praising Vietnam’s “noteworthy” progress on religious freedoms amid a flurry of US-Vietnam trade deals and vows of closer cooperation on issues like climate change.
“We talked about freedom, religious and political freedom,” Bush said. “And I told the prime minister that I thought the strides the government is making towards religious freedom is noteworthy and I appreciated the efforts that he and his government are making.”
Dung, speaking through an interpreter, made no mention of rights among the issues they had discussed and said Bush had “reiterated his support for Vietnam’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.”
Bush’s upbeat tone seemed to clash with the US State Department’s assessment on the human rights picture in Vietnam last year, which cited reports of limits on religious meetings and celebrations and the publication of religious texts.
“Overall respect for religious freedom improved during the year, but the government persisted in placing restrictions on the political activities of religious groups,” said the report, which was published in March.
Dung said he and Bush had agreed to bolster cooperation on economic, education, environment, science, defense and security issues.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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