US representatives visiting Taiwan yesterday brushed off talk of the US “abandoning” Taiwan, saying that would be a betrayal of US commitments to liberty.
The abandonment of Taiwan would mean “more than losing a strategic ally” to the US and would also betray the US’ -commitment to liberty, US Representative Thaddeus McCotter said in a question-and-answer session during a forum with young people in Taipei organized by the Formosa Foundation.
The Michigan congressman was part of a seven-member US congressional delegation which is headed by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs. The group arrived on Sunday as -President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was inaugurated for his second term in office.
McCotter, Ros-Lehtinen and Representative Jean Schmidt attended the forum and held a 60-minute discussion with dozens of young students and others on a variety of issues.
Recalling the 1989 Tiananman Square massacre, McCotter lamented that past US administrations had failed to grasp the importance of the Sino-US relationship, at the center of which sits the promotion of liberty.
However, Taiwan — in particular its young generation — could take advantage of the power of social media and have an impact in China, McCotter and Schmidt both said. Schmidt also called Taiwan a “beacon on the hill and a bastion of hope.”
On US arms sales to Taiwan, Ros-Lehtinen reassured the forum that the pro-Taiwan US lawmakers had been agitating for an armaments deal including the sale of new F-16 aircraft and -diesel-electric submarines. She said these would help Taiwan maintain its defenses and added that she endorsed providing the country with the most sophisticated and advanced military hardware available to counter China’s rapidly growing military power as well as Beijing’s intimidation and bullying of Taiwan.
Delegation members all declined to comment on US President Barack Obama’s Taiwan policy or Ma’s performance in office, with McCotter saying that there is no point in the US taking sides on the internal politics of another state.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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