A petition launched on the White House’s Web site calling on the US to recognize Taiwan as an independent country has garnered more than 64,000 signatures in less than a week.
The US in December 1978 severed diplomatic ties with the Republic of China and established ties with the People’s Republic of China in January 1979.
The US government should “formally recognize Taiwan as the independently governed nation it has been for over 60 years,” says the petition initiated on Monday by a user named K.W. on the petition Web site “We the People.”
Photo: Screen grab from the We the People Web site
Taiwan is “a model for other Asian countries to follow” as it has “transitioned from dictatorship into democracy in 1996 without bloodshed, when it voted for its first presidential election,” the petition says.
“It is a leader and partner to the United States, providing assistance to other countries with humanitarian aid and rescue teams during disasters,” it says.
“It is also a strategic partner in the Pacific, and important ally in helping to contain China,” the petition says.
“It’s time the 23 million people of Taiwan be [sic] represented in the United Nations ... and that can only happen if the United States extends formal recognition to the country, so other countries will follow suit,” the petition says.
Taiwan is recognized by 15 diplomatic allies after the Solomon Islands and Kiribati last month switched recognition to Beijing.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noticed the appeal voluntarily launched by US citizens, which the government of Taiwan respects, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said yesterday.
The ministry would closely watch the petition’s development while continuing to deepen the nation’s partnership with the US in different areas based on good collaborative foundations and mechanisms, she said.
The petition needs to collect 100,000 signatures by Nov. 6 to trigger a response from the White House.
As of press time, it needed 35,592 signatures to reach the threshold, the Web site (https://bit.ly/33zmaP1) showed.
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats