The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US government for deepening Taiwan-US relations, saying that it hopes to further improve ties with the administration of US president-elect Donald Trump.
The government thanked the administration of US President Barak Obama for its support over the past eight years, including selling arms to Taiwan, helping enhance Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, upgrading bilateral trade and economic relations and helping Taiwan participate in international activities, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said in a statement.
“As a democracy, just like the United States, we also thank the US government for not treating its relationship with Taiwan as subordinate to or an extension of US relations with other nations and for strengthening Taiwan-US relations step by step,” Huang said. “Taiwan hopes to strengthen its relations with the incoming Trump administration on this robust foundation for bilateral relations.”
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan Taipei Times
The administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is committed to maintaining the “status quo” of peace across the Taiwan Strait, the statement said.
“It is our government’s abiding position to maintain Taiwan’s freedom and democracy and to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait and the ‘status quo’ of peace and stability in cross-strait relations,” Huang said.
Huang’s remarks followed comments by Obama on Taiwan and China on Friday at his year-end news conference, his last before departing the White House on Jan. 20.
It was the first time Obama spoke extensively about the Taiwan-US-China relationship since Trump made remarks questioning Washington’s “one China” policy, under which the US acknowledges, but does not necessarily accept, Beijing’s position that there is only “one China.”
Obama was answering a question on whether the US’ policy toward China could use a fresh approach, as suggested by Trump’s recent comments, in which he appeared to say that he would not necessarily be bound by the US’ “one China” policy, unless it received trade concessions from Beijing.
There has been a long-standing agreement between China, the US and, to some degree, Taiwanese, and that is to not change the “status quo,” Obama said.
“China views Taiwan as part of China, but recognizes that it has to approach Taiwan as an entity that has its own ways of doing things,” Obama said. “The Taiwanese have agreed that as long as they’re able to continue to function with some degree of autonomy, that they won’t charge forward and declare independence.”
“And that ‘status quo,’ although not completely satisfactory to any of the parties involved, has kept the peace and allowed the Taiwanese to be a pretty successful economy and a people who have a high degree of self-determination,” he said.
However, he warned against changing the “status quo.”
“But understand, for China, the issue of Taiwan is as important as anything on their docket. The idea of ‘one China’ is at the heart of their conception as a nation,” Obama said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
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
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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
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