President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US president-elect Donald Trump spoke over the telephone on issues relating to improving the economy and strengthening national defense, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
The conversation, which the Presidential Office said took place at 11pm on Friday and lasted slightly longer than 10 minutes, was the first publicly reported call between a US president or a president-elect and a Taiwanese leader since 1979, when Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
Tsai congratulated Trump on his victory in the closely contested US presidential election and said she believed he would make an excellent president, the Presidential Office said in a news release, which added that Tsai also conveyed to Trump the hope that the US would support Taiwan making more contributions to and having more participation in international issues.
Photo provided by the Presidential Office
National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) and two other presidential aides were present during the conversation, the news release said.
Tsai and Trump talked about their views and ideals on governance, especially on promoting domestic economic development and strengthening national defense to ensure a better, safer life for the public, it said.
The two leaders also briefly exchanged views on the situation in Asia, it added.
On Taiwan-US relations, Tsai expressed the hope of boosting bilateral exchanges and contacts and establishing closer cooperation, it said.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) confirmed that it was Tsai who made the call to Trump following a pre-arranged procedure.
While he declined to give other details about the arrangement, a source familiar with the matter said that Edwin Feulner, founder of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, played a key role in setting up the call.
Feulner, in Taipei in October, joined the Trump team in August, according to US media reports.
Trump also took to Twitter about the call.
The US president-elect tweeted: “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!”
The traditional US diplomatic formulation for referring to Taiwan’s leader is “the president on Taiwan.”
In a second tweet Trump wrote: “Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.”
US President Barack Obama’s White House said the outgoing US administration had not changed its stance.
“There is no change to our longstanding policy on cross-strait issues,” US National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said.
“We remain firmly committed to our ‘One China’ policy,” she added. “Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable cross-strait relations.”
Additional reporting by AFP and The Guardian
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
NATURAL INTERRUPTION: As cables deteriorate, core wires snap in progression along the cable, which does not happen if they are hit by an anchor, an official said Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) immediately switched to a microwave backup system to maintain communications between Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County (Matsu) after two undersea cables malfunctioned due to natural deterioration, the Ministry of Digital Affairs told an emergency news conference yesterday morning. Two submarine cables connecting Taiwan proper and the outlying county — the No. 2 and No. 3 Taiwan-Matsu cables — were disconnected early yesterday morning and on Wednesday last week respectively, the nation’s largest telecom said. “After receiving the report that the No. 2 cable had failed, the ministry asked Chunghwa Telecom to immediately activate a microwave backup system, with
RSS