Reports that a visit to Taiwan by a US Cabinet official was canceled at the last minute have led to speculation that China has a role in US officials’ decision to travel to the nation.
According to Taiwanese media, US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy was scheduled to become the first Cabinet-level visitor from the US to visit Taiwan in 13 years. Academics familiar with the reports were unable to confirm them.
McCarthy, who is currently visiting China, was said to have suddenly canceled her planned visit after it was announced by Taiwanese media.
Asked about the visit, Center for International Security Studies (CSIS) senior adviser for Asia Bonnie Glaser said: “Rumors have a way of developing.”
“We used to send Cabinet-level officials to Taiwan quite frequently. Beijing has gotten used to us not sending cabinet-level officials. I have heard Chinese officials say that it is not something the US should return to,” she said.
Glaser added that she had not been informed about the McCarthy case and did not know if the reports of a canceled visit were accurate. She said the US cooperated with Taiwan on many important issues and that she did not think that Cabinet-level visits were something that Beijing should oppose.
“It’s a practice that should be part of the US-Taiwan relationship,” Glaser said. “I don’t think it should be seen as harmful to Chinese interests.”
CSIS senior vice president for Asia Mike Green said that Cabinet members who did not work on foreign policy issues were “easily frightened” by Chinese opposition.
“Even if there is no formal opposition from the [Chinese] government, it doesn’t take much for Beijing to signal its displeasure and deter a Cabinet member,” he said. “If you are the EPA administrator, you have a long list of very hard issues with China. It basically takes the national security adviser or maybe the secretary of state to call and say, ‘I need you to make this trip.’”
“I don’t know the specifics of this case, but I would hope that it will cause a rethink within the administration. They need to get the signal out that they want to get Cabinet-level visits back on track,” Green said. “I can understand that someone would not want to be the first one to break the ice, but I don’t even know for certain it was canceled, I have just read the reports.”
Washington-based officials with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) refused to comment on Wednesday about the reports.
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