Two members of US Congress — Republican Representative Michael McCaul from Texas and Democratic Representative Shelley Berkley from Nevada — are commemorating the 30th anniversary of former US president Ronald Reagan’s “six assurances” and the 25th anniversary of the lifting of martial law in Taiwan by entering special statements in the US Congressional Record.
Both representatives said they were acting “to further underline our unwavering commitment and affirm our support for the strong and deepening relationship between the US and Taiwan.”
Reagan issued the “six assurances” on July 14, 1982, to reaffirm US policy toward Taiwan and stipulate that the US would not pressure Taiwan to negotiate with China. On the same date, five years later, then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) lifted martial law in Taiwan. It had been in place for 38 years — the longest period of rule by martial law of any regime in the world.
“The coincidence in dates of these two critical junctures in Taiwan’s history, five years apart, highlights the indispensable role that the US and the Taiwan Relations Act each played in the island’s democratization,” Formosa Association for Public Affairs president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said.
“Beijing does not believe in the legitimacy of either the ‘six assurances’ or the Taiwan Relations Act because both documents fly in the face of its aspiration to annex Taiwan by force,” Kao said.
McCaul and Berkley said in their Congressional statements: “The people of Taiwan continue to live day after day under the ominous shadow cast by over 1,400 short and medium-range ballistic missiles that China has aimed at them.”
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] persists in claiming Taiwan as a ‘renegade province’ refusing to renounce the use of force to prevent Taiwan’s formal de jure independence,” they added.
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
RSS