Unguarded comments about Taiwan have entered the flap surrounding Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s controversial remarks on low-income Americans and the dangers of a Palestinian state.
The Romney quotes — largely unreported by the US media — seem to reflect a pessimistic view of Taiwan’s future, with little strategic thought or planning.
Answering a question about the possibility of an independent Palestinian State, Romney said: “You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem.”
“We live with that in China and Taiwan,” Romney continued. “All right, we have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it. And we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don’t go to war to try and resolve it imminently.”
The remarks were made at a private off-the-record fundraising dinner in Florida nearly four months ago.
Someone at the dinner secretly videotaped Romney and the damaging tape was released this week.
The US press first concentrated on the Republican candidate’s comments that Palestinians “have no interest” in peace with Israel.
However, yesterday newspaper front pages were dominated by Romney’s further remarks on the videotape that nearly half of Americans receive government benefits and do not pay federal income taxes.
He said that he “doesn’t worry about those people” and that they see themselves as victims.
The incident could severely damage the Romney campaign and according to the New York Times has given the Democrats new ammunition to claim he is out of touch with the needs and values of the middle class.
Polls are already reflecting a drop in support for the Republican candidate.
In the midst of this political furor, Romney’s words about Taiwan were overlooked. However, by Wednesday night in Washington, Capitol Hill was beginning to take notice. Republican sources close to the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee said they were “disappointed” that Romney had no strategy for dealing with Taiwan’s future, but was simply waiting for something to happen.
“We would have expected Romney to have a more proactive and forward-leaning approach,” Formosa Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) official Coen Blaauw said. “The preservation of Taiwan’s democracy and right to self-determination is essential to US geostrategic interests.”
“It’s not enough to kick the ball down the field and hope that someday the problem will resolve itself,” Blaauw said. “Previous statements from his campaign signaled a preference for taking a stronger stance against China in general and against military aggression in particular.”
The Republican Party platform — largely written by Romney advisers — opposes any unilateral steps by either side to alter the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait on the principle that all issues regarding the island’s future must be resolved peacefully, through dialogue and be agreeable to the people of Taiwan.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS