A senior US Department of State official has been jumping through hoops to avoid commenting on Taiwan’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The incident demonstrates the extreme sensitivity of the situation as US Secretary of State John Kerry continues with his fourth visit to the Asia-Pacific region in the past nine months.
While visiting Vietnam and the Philippines, Kerry pledged an additional US$32.5 million for ASEAN members to protect their territorial waters and navigational freedom in the South China Sea. He said that US maritime security assistance would now exceed US$156 million over the next two years.
“Peace and stability in the South China Sea is a top priority for us and for countries in the region,” Kerry said during a press conference with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh in Hanoi on Monday. “We are very concerned by and strongly opposed to coercive and aggressive tactics to advance territorial claims.”
After announcing on Nov. 23 that it was establishing an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea, China has claimed a sovereign right to do the same thing over the South China Sea.
During an earlier background briefing — the details of which have been released in Washington — a senior official said that Vietnam and the Philippines, as claimants in the South China Sea, were “faced with significant tensions and the risk of coercive action that could undermine their interest.”
Right now, the 10 leaders of ASEAN were meeting in Japan “and undoubtedly comparing notes on the South China Sea and the East China Sea,” the official said.
The official said the issue for the US was not who wins the sovereignty argument, but rather how that argument is conducted.
“Our concern is with behavior and we categorically oppose the threat or the use of force,” he said. “We similarly oppose unilateral actions that aim at advancing a claim through extralegal and non-diplomatic means.”
After saying there were five claimants in the South China Sea, including China, the official was asked if there were not in fact six claimants, including Taiwan.
“Is this a trick question?” asked the official, who cannot be named under the rules of the briefing.
A reporter said: “I’m not asking you to call Taiwan a country. I’m asking you to call it a claimant because I think it is.”
“Yeah, that’s an interesting theological question,” the official replied.
At that point the reporter asked: “Is it or not? Or, are you saying that China’s claim would include Taiwan’s claim, just because of your ‘one China’ policy?”
The official said that Taiwan was not involved in the discussions among claimants.
“They are not involved because the Chinese refuse to recognize them as a country and they can’t get into any of the organizations that would help them,” the reporter said. “I mean, they can’t get into ASEAN, they can’t get into the UN, but they are a claimant.”
The senior official replied: “Let’s just say that there are five countries that have competing claims in the South China Sea.”
At that point he steered the questioning away from Taiwan and onto other topics being covered during Kerry’s trip.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS