Characterizing himself as a representative of Taiwan who facilitated “communication without noise,” Representative to Washington King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) said in an interview aired yesterday that the US had “very much welcomed” his appointment.
King had an interview with Hit FM radio at 7pm on Wednesday after a seven-and-a-half-hour question-and-answer session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
The interview was broadcast yesterday morning.
After about three weeks in office in Washington, King returned to Taiwan to brief the committee on the state and future prospects of US-Taiwan relations.
King said that during his three weeks in office he visited more than 20 senior US government officials and 24 members of Congress and senators in the US Congress.
“They [the US] very much welcomed my appointment” because he is a “close confidant” of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his appointment reflected the high degree of importance Ma has attached to Taiwan-US relations, King said.
“But there are both advantages and disadvantages,” he said.
King said that he is able to deliver Ma’s message to the US precisely, but that the US takes whatever he says as Ma’s exact stance and so he needs to express himself in a way that leaves no room for differing interpretations.
“I have to be cautious not to make mistakes. For me, there is no buffer zone,” he said.
King said that he was also welcomed by the US because of his experience in serving as secretary-general of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) between December 2009 and January last year.
“That helps shorten the distance. When I told them about the experiences, they said: ‘You know politics,’” King said.
In response to a question regarding the role of the US in Ma’s cross-strait policies, King said he was often asked by US officials to explain the concern repeatedly voiced by Democratic Progressive Party members, who said that the Ma administration’s cross-strait policies lean too much toward China.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we