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.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but