The US says it will not send congratulations to the winner of the presidential election until all of the challenges launched by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
It also says that neither the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (
The US disclosed that Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
In Washington's first extensive comments on the election and the events surrounding it, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher explained the Bush administration's failure to congratulate Chen by saying it will wait for the legal processes in Taiwan to be completed.
"We're just comfortable waiting for those processes to work themselves out, and not for us to say who won, but for them to tell us who won," Boucher said.
In its earlier response to the election results, the State Department sent its congratulations to "the people of Taiwan," not to Chen specifically.
Boucher repeated that in his press briefing on Monday.
"We congratulate the Taiwan people for exercising their right to vote in the recent election, as they did in large numbers. I think this demonstrates once again that Taiwan is a vibrant democracy," he said.
Boucher also said the US has rejected Lien's request for Washington to send experts to Taiwan to investigate the assassination attempt and to intervene in his election challenges.
"We're very neutral in this," he said. "We think there are appropriate legal mechanisms in Taiwan to work out the appropriate determinations as regards to the election results, and I think that would apply to the shooting as well."
He refused to speculate on the US response should the government ask it to send experts to help in the shooting probe.
"I'd just have to see if that were to happen, if they were to invite somebody. I'm not aware that we've had anybody, at least on the government side, that's been invited at this point," Boucher said.
He reiterated Washington's earlier call for the people of Taiwan to remain calm.
"Decisions on the challenges and recounts and those things, those are decisions for the people of Taiwan to make," he said. "We're confident that both sides and their supporters will remain calm, and that they will use established legal mechanisms to resolve any questions about the election results."
Boucher said, "We're all watching this situation. We've been talking to people in Taiwan as well to make sure that we understand the views of various people there, including leaders of the two colors, of the two alliances.
"And so, it's been a matter that we've been following closely, and the Chinese and others have as well," he said.
He said in their discussion, Powell and Li "did talk about the elections and how things were evolving with it."
Regarding the meetings American Institute in Taiwan Director Douglas Paal held with Chen and Lien on Sunday, Boucher said the meetings were planned in advance, but could not say when.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS