A large group of Taiwanese American organizations is petitioning US President Barack Obama to dramatically increase the US’ ability to stop a Chinese military takeover of Taiwan.
Over the past three months, the group has collected 17,000 letters of support from Taiwan, Japan, Canada and across the US.
They met on Tuesday in Washington with Ted Mann, director of the US State Department’s Office of Taiwan Coordination, and Barbara Schrage, managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), to present a petition to be passed on to Obama at the White House.
“There was a cordial exchange of views,” a State Department source said later.
The petition asks Obama to reaffirm the US’ Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and to “voice concern about the erosion of freedom of speech and assembly and the loss of judicial independence on Taiwan.”
It also asks Obama to send a Cabinet member to Taipei, allow US Navy ships to call at Taiwanese ports and deploy two aircraft carrier task forces to the Western Pacific to maintain the capacity to resist any Chinese attack on Taiwan.
While it is unlikely Obama will agree to any of these moves, analysts say the petition will help remind the State Department of the anxiety felt by many Taiwanese over the possibility of a Chinese takeover.
Among the groups presenting the petition were the Formosan Association for Human Rights; the Formosan Association for Public Affairs; the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association; the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association; the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan; the Taiwan Hakka Association of Public Affairs in North America; the Taiwan Association of University Professors and the Taiwanese American Association.
The letter to Obama says that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been pursuing a policy of “incremental capitulation” by reducing the budget and size of Taiwan’s military, deepening the dependency of the nation’s economy on China and downgrading Taiwan’s international status.
“Taiwan is being delivered into Beijing’s grasp by stealth,” the letter says.
Following Tuesday’s closed-door meeting at the AIT offices, Jay Loo (盧主義), spokesman for the petition project, told the Taipei Times that the US would suffer a “geostrategic disaster” if China took over Taiwan.
He said sea lanes and airspace around Taiwan were critical to the survival of Japan and South Korea and that if those two countries fell under Chinese domination, “the US would be forced to retreat all the way back to Hawaii.”
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
Air and rail traffic around Taiwan were disrupted today while power cuts occurred across the country as Typhoon Kong-rey, predicted to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon, continued edging closer to the country. A total of 241 passenger and cargo flights departing from or arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were canceled today due to the typhoon, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. As of 9:30am, 109 inbound flights, 103 outbound flights and 29 cargo flights had been canceled, the company said. Taiwan Railway Corp also canceled all express trains on its Western Trunk Line, Eastern Trunk Line, South-Link Line and attached branches
Typhoon Kong-rey is forecast to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon and would move out to sea sometime overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 9am today, Kong-rey's outer rim was covering most of Taiwan except for the north. The storm's center was 110km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost tip, and moving northwest at 28kph. It was carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of 184kph, and gusts of up to 227kph, the CWA said. At a news conference this morning, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said Kong-rey is moving "extremely fast," and is expected to make landfall between
RSS