President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged unity across political lines against China as Sao Tome and Principe broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
The African nation’s decision to terminate ties with Taiwan, as well as changes in the international situation, pose a major challenge to Taiwan diplomatically, Tsai said at a meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Central Standing Committee at the party’s headquarters in Taipei.
“At a time of change, national solidarity across party lines is increasingly needed to fight against foreign forces,” DPP spokesman Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) quoted Tsai as saying. “China has never stopped suppressing Taiwan’s international participation and diplomatic efforts.”
Photo: courtesy of the Presidential Office
China is behind a series of diplomatic setbacks Taiwan has faced, including the Gambia’s decision to sever diplomatic ties in 2013, the disrespectful treatment former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was subject to in Malaysia last month and Sao Tome and Principe’s announcement yesterday, Tsai said.
“As those incidents clearly suggest, China’s intervention occurs regardless of which party is in charge of the [Taiwanese] government,” she said.
China’s diplomatic isolation of Taiwan is directed against the entire population instead of specific political parties, Tsai said, adding that such practices are counterproductive to long-term cross-strait development and alienate Taiwanese.
In face of these challenges, the government must adopt a pragmatic diplomatic policy to broaden the scope of the nation’s international cooperation and improve Taipei’s relations with other nations on a mutually beneficial basis, she said.
Since Tsai was inaugurated in May, it has been the government’s top priority to increase the nation’s global presence and re-evaluate the unfair treatment the nation has been subject to, Tsai said, reiterating that the nation would not ease its diplomatic efforts.
“While divergence and conflict are common between the ruling and opposition parties, it is time we united against foreign forces to protect the national interest,” Tsai said.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said Tsai met with government officials at noon to respond to the incident.
The participants included National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Premier Lin Chuan (林全), Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維), Mainland Affairs Council Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) and central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南).
Huang said the president issued three instructions following the meeting: it is unnecessary for Taiwan to engage in “checkbook diplomacy” and it should maintain its stance of assisting diplomatic allies based on the principles of equality, reciprocity and mutual prosperity; that Beijing’s attempts to limit Taiwan’s international participation cause damage to the global community and cross-strait development; and finance-related government agencies should closely monitor the stock market in the aftermath of the break.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS