Washington on Tuesday reacted coolly to a complaint from China about new US legislation expressing support for Taiwan’s bid to gain observer status at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), sources said.
Sources at the US Department of State and the US House of Representatives assured the Taipei Times that the complaint would have no impact on the US’ stance.
US President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law last week and instructed US Secretary of State John Kerry to push for Taiwan’s ICAO bid.
The legislation “seriously violated” the “one China” policy, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said in Beijing.
Hua said Beijing urged Washington to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.
The complaint came as an overview of US-Taiwan policy issues was released by Congressional Research Service specialists Shirley Kan and Wayne Morrison.
The report is aimed at keeping US Congress members of up to date on vital issues. It said that Beijing continues to block Taiwan’s participation in international meetings and organizations.
For decades, Taipei has “harbored fears” about whether Beijing’s cooperation with Washington has occurred at the expense of Taiwan’s interests, the overview said.
“US policy seeks a cooperative relationship with a rising PRC [People’s Republic of China], which opposes US arms sales and other official dealings with Taiwan as interference in its internal affairs...” it said.
The report also warned that as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) second term progresses, Beijing could increase pressure on Taiwan to conduct political and military cross-strait negotiations.
Beijing’s patience may be tested by Taiwanese’s sustained sense of identity, it added.
“Despite the pronouncements of a ‘one China’ by leaders in Taipei and Beijing, and closer cross-strait ties, Taiwan’s people retain a strong Taiwan-centric identity after over a century of mostly separation from mainland China,” the report said.
The overview emphasized that Taiwanese have pursued prosperity, security and a democratic way of life and self-governance.
Moderate Taiwanese voters have generally supported close economic ties to the PRC, but political separation, it added.
According to the overview, in August last year only 0.9 percent of Taiwanese surveyed wanted cross-strait unification to be realized soon as possible, while 84 percent wanted to maintain the “status quo” and 7 percent called for immediate independence. The remaining 8 percent voiced no opinion.
“President Ma has to deal with a political propensity in his own party [the Chinese Nationalist Pary (KMT)] to move even closer to the PRC,” the overview said.
It said that two months before Ma’s second inaugural address, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) called for a new phase of mutual political trust, economic benefits for both sides and shaping Taiwan’s cultural understanding of the “one China national identity.”
A month before Ma’s address, then-TAO director Wang Yi (王毅) visited Washington and met with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, where he indicated Beijing’s expectations to hold political talks with Taipei.
Beijing could soon start pressuring Taipei to start “preparing for, if not pressing for” political and military talks, the study said.
It added that the US has “concerns” that Taiwan under Ma has not given sufficient priority to national defense because it cut the defense budget in 2009, 2010 and 2011 until an increase last year.
“President Ma has failed to reach the promised defense spending of 3 percent of GDP,” it said.
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