US Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential hopeful, has accused the administration of US President Barack Obama of ignoring Taiwan’s interests, “including its urgent need for defensive arms.”
It is the first time that Taiwan had been seriously introduced into the US presidential campaign.
“In the face of Chinese coercion, the United States must reassert its commitment to Taiwan’s security,” Rubio, who is co-chairman of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, said in a statement on Sunday.
“It has been four years since the White House notified Congress of a major arms sale to Taiwan, the longest period without such a notification in over 25 years,” he said.
The statement was in response to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) meeting in Singapore on Saturday.
Following the last televised Republican debate, Rubio surged in the polls, although he remains behind the two leading “outsider” candidates, business mogul Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
He is ahead of one-time favorite former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and, despite a potential financial scandal, the US press is reporting that “establishment” Republicans are gravitating to Rubio.
It remains to be seen if the leading Democratic hopefuls, former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, will respond to Rubio’s comments about Taiwan.
Referring to the Singapore meeting, Rubio said that he welcomed cross-strait dialogue that furthers peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The US should also welcome Chinese President Xi’s recognition that stability is best served by dealing with Taiwan as an equal partner,” Rubio said. “Such bilateral engagement at the highest levels should be the new norm in cross-strait relations, regardless of who is in power in Taipei.”
Rubio went on to say that Washington must remain “clear-eyed” about China’s intentions.
He said the timing of the meeting suggested a Chinese attempt to influence Taiwan’s presidential elections.
“Beijing should refrain from any efforts to interfere in Taiwan’s democratic political processes,” Rubio said.
“This meeting, moreover, should not distract from the fact that China has for decades pursued a coercive policy towards Taiwan, isolating it from the international community and directly threatening it with more than 1,000 missiles aimed at the island,” he said.
Rubio said that Taiwan had shown the world that traditional Chinese culture and democracy could coexist and even flourish.
“Taiwan’s continued existence as a vibrant, prosperous democracy in the heart of Asia is crucial to American security interests there and to the continued expansion of liberty and free enterprise in the region,” he said.
The US must do more to help Taiwan counter the growing military threat from China, he said.
“Instead of focusing on petty bilateral trade disputes, the US should be pushing for Taiwan’s eventual inclusion in additional international organizations and trade agreements,” he said.
“We too must engage with Taiwan at higher levels to ensure peace and stability across the Strait,” he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS