Former chairwoman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Therese Shaheen yesterday said President Chen Shui-bian's (
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times yesterday, Shaheen said that although she is supportive of the liberalization of trade in goods and services across the Strait, the government has the right to put constraints on industry if certain commercial activities put national security in jeopardy.
"All governments have a right to put constraints on trade ? and governments will still define industries that need to be restricted based on national security for a whole variety reasons," Shaheen said.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Shaheen said her understanding of Chen's "active management, effective opening" policy was that, "Effectively we're open, but we're [also] going to be proactive and careful about exactly what we're giving the permission for because we don't know how this could be used against us. We don't know how it could hollow [out] our industries."
Using the US as an analogy, Shaheen said Washington has the same problem with its business relations with China, as the advanced technologies the US exports to other countries might be re-exported to China for "dual use" -- in other words for use in weapons systems.
Shaheen, who still maintains close friendships with many high-ranking officials in Taiwan, is on a three-day visit to Taiwan. Yesterday she attended a luncheon hosted by the president. She also met with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Shaheen said she didn't regard Chen's remarks on constitutional change in his New Year speech as alarming, and that her understanding of the US' attitude toward Chen's constitutional ideas was also that there was "no particular alarm" about it in Washington.
The bottom line the US upholds on any changes made to Taiwan's Constitution is that no unilateral change in the cross-strait relationship is made, Shaheen said.
The former AIT head said she believed the constitution Chen proposes will not be an entirely new one and that it would comply with the "five noes," in which the president promised not to alter the status of Taiwan's sovereignty and territory.
Regarding the country's long-stalled arms procurement budget to purchase advanced weapons from the US, Shaheen said the issue is important because Taiwan doesn't have the military capability to overwhelm China, and this increases the stakes for the US if it is dragged into a cross-strait military conflict should any provocation between China and Taiwan evolve into a war.
Shaheen had strong words for the pan-blue argument that Taiwan can't win a war with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and this therefore annuls the need to purchase weapons to counteract Beijing's fast growing military power.
"That's the stupidest argument I've ever heard in my life. How many countries in the world can win a war with the PRC?" she said.
Shaheen said that increasing Taiwan's defense capability is important, because it can provide a valid deterrent to Beijing, and this would reduce the burden on Washington to provide for Taiwan's self-defense, including military operations between Taiwan and the US.
She also disclosed that Chen did not make the arms purchase a priority when he first came into office, and only boosted its importance later when he discovered he had been misinformed by the military about how far Taiwan's military was lagging behind China's.
Taiwan's military power began to decline vis-a-vis China's about 10 years ago. However, Taiwan has not been keeping up in modernizing its military, regardless of the fact that China has one of the fastest growing militaries worldwide in recent years, Shaheen said.
‘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
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
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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS