An editorial in the People’s Daily yesterday adopted unusually bellicose language to “warn” Washington against selling advanced weapons to Taiwan, pointing to the “disastrous price” that would be paid if Washington proceeds with the sale.
“At present, some madmen on Capitol Hill are making an uproar about consolidating and expanding this cancer,” the paper said, referring to the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires the US to sell Taiwan the military equipment it needs for its self-defense.
Calling US politicians who support continued arms sales to Taiwan “wildly arrogant,” the editorial said Sino-US relations would find themselves in a predicament if the sale were allowed to proceed.
US Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, has been one of the main proponents of the sale of the 66 F-16C/Ds, which Taipei has been requesting from the US since 2007 and which is the main focus of Beijing’s warnings.
In April, US Senator Richard Lugar, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to US Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton urging the Obama administration to make the F-16C/Ds available to Taiwan.
The letter warns that a failure to do so would leave its ally with “no credible air-to-air capability.”
Forty-five senators, led by US Senate Taiwan Caucus co-chairs Robert Menendez and James Inhofe, and 181 members of the US House of Representatives have signed letters calling on US President Barack Obama’s administration to release the F-16s to Taiwan.
The Obama administration is expected to announce its final decision on the sale on Oct. 1, which coincides with national day in the People’s Republic of China.
Beijing has long said that the sale of F-16C/Ds was a “red line” that should not be crossed, warning that it would severely undermine relations between Beijing and Washington.
“Some people want to turn back the tide of history, but they must be clear about the disastrous price they will have to pay,” the editorial said.
“A word of advice for those muddleheaded congressmen: Don’t go too far, don’t play with fire,” it said.
The editorial was signed “Zhong Sheng,” or “voice of China,” which has been used in the past to reflect the views of the senior party leadership.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation