A US official on Thursday expressed concern over attempts by China to change the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait, as seen in Beijing’s escalating efforts to suppress Taiwan internationally.
US Department of State Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary Alex Wong (黃之瀚) pointed to recent actions taken by China to squeeze Taiwan’s international space to make contributions that benefit the international community, such as offering humanitarian assistance and taking part in the World Health Assembly.
“Stability in the region is dependent on the status quo across the Strait. So the US government is very concerned about any attempts to disturb that status quo,” Wong said during a discussion on US strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region held as part of the annual conference of the Center for a New American Security.
Photo: CNA
Beyond the Taiwan Relations Act, the three US-China communiques and Washington’s “one China” policy, the basis of the US-Taiwan relationship is shared values, a commitment to democracy, a commitment to market economics and a commitment to making positive contributions to the international system, Wong said.
“So in that respect, Taiwan plays a very strong and important role in the Pacific because it’s embodied in the type of reform, the type of value, that we want to promote throughout the Pacific and throughout the world,” he said.
He also mentioned the new office building of the American Institute in Taiwan, which he said is a demonstration of the “enduring nature of our relationship.”
US Principal Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs David Helvey said that Taiwan is a critically important partner of the US and that Washington continues to make available to Taiwan defense articles and services necessary to maintain its self-defense.
Taiwan’s role in the Indo-Pacific region strategy lies in its ability to maintain investment in its own capability to maintain the right type of deterrence and balance across the Taiwan Strait, so it can interact with China in a way that is consistent with its overall approach toward the cross-strait relationship, he 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
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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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