US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce has promised Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that he will support Taiwan’s efforts to be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade agreement.
During her ongoing five-day visit to Washington, Tsai has said that TPP membership is vital for the nation’s economy.
Following a closed-door meeting with Tsai on Thursday, Royce said that one of the most important ways the US Congress could help Taiwan was to back its vibrant democracy and that Taiwan needed to be included in TPP.
“Also, I reiterated my commitment to press the administration to come to a decision on helping Taiwan acquire diesel submarines,” he said.
Later, Tsai met with the US-Taiwan Business Council, with former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, and attended a rally and banquet organized by a group of leading Taiwanese Americans.
At an event on Wednesday, former assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell asked Tsai how she would help unify Taiwan’s “deeply divided society.”
She said that if elected to the presidency next year, she would run an open and transparent government and would increase the quality and quantity of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Tsai said the NGOs would facilitate dialogue between the government and the public.
“After the Sunflower movement, there has been a rise of third forces in Taiwan and I think this is a good development in the sense that public awareness has been increased and people want to participate in the decisionmaking process,” she said.
Tsai said the environment in Taiwan was very different from when she last ran for the presidency and that her campaign had developed better communications so that “our intentions will not be distorted or misunderstood.”
Tsai said that while some people have reservations about electing a woman president, the younger generation has been generally excited about the idea.
“They think it is rather trendy,” she said.
Tsai said that the business culture in Taiwan has to change so that business leaders become less afraid of failure.
“We will need to change the legal infrastructure to suit the needs of an innovation-based economy,” she said.
Campbell asked Tsai for her views on Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“I have to answer this question very carefully,” Tsai said.
“I like the idea of his anti-corruption campaign. I admire his courage. To many observers, he seems to be rather rough and not that prepared to exercise flexibility,” she said.
“I hope he has a better understanding of the situation in Taiwan and also an understanding of Taiwan as a democracy,” she said.
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