Assistant US Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has urged Taiwan to tread very carefully in dealing with the current dispute over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台).
“We have had unofficial interactions with Taiwanese authorities,” he told a conference in Washington this week.
Campbell said that the US position had been “underscored” clearly.
“We expect Taiwan, along with other countries in the Asian Pacific region, to take steps not to provoke misunderstandings or tensions,” he said.
In a series of recent unofficial contacts with Taipei, other US officials have also appealed for caution.
According to sources who spoke on the strict condition of anonymity, one meeting with Taiwanese officials was “heated.”
While the US Department of State had nothing to say on the subject on Wednesday, Campbell touched on the issue at a meeting on US-China relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Tuesday.
He was asked what the US thought about the “East China Sea peace initiative” — calling for bilateral and trilateral talks — proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
“First of all, at a larger level, obviously one of the most important things that the United States seeks to convey is the determination to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Campbell said.
“We’ve also strongly supported the positive dialogue that has taken place over the last several years between the mainland and Taiwan,” he said. “We seek that to continue.”
Campbell said Washington wanted to support its unofficial ties with Taiwan, particularly in the area of economic engagements.
“We have made very clear to all parties our position on these territorial matters,” he said. “I articulated that position earlier — the maintenance of peace and stability, the desire to support freedom of navigation, and also the desire to see difficulties and disputes settled peacefully.”
Asked about China becoming “much more assertive” over the islands, Campbell said the US wanted cooler heads to prevail.
“It is also the case that remarkable prosperity has taken place in Asia, even with these problems lurking sometimes just beneath the surface,” he said. “And what we are trying to do is to remind all leaders how important it is to sustain good relations at a time in which the world is counting on Asia, and particularly Northeast Asia, to fulfill its role with respect to the global economy.”
The US stood, he said, for issues such as freedom of navigation, the diplomatic resolution of problems and that parties do not resort to coercion or force.
“We have strongly supported efforts at diplomacy and dialogue between Tokyo and Beijing,” he said. “These are among the most difficult issues on the global scene and we believe that we have played an appropriate role, oft times behind the scenes, to encourage calm, and the maintenance of peace and stability.”
Senior Taiwanese officials now in Washington are believed to have spoken with US diplomats about Taiwan’s claims and policies concerning the islands.
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