AFTERSHOCKS LIKELY: A hiker was hurt by falling rocks at the Taroko National Park, while a tower crane was damaged at a construction site in New Taipei City
A series of earthquakes yesterday injured several people, damaged buildings and disrupted transportation. A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck 8km northeast of Hualien County Hall at 12:38pm at a depth of 23.8km, the Central Weather Bureau’s Web site showed. It was followed at 1:11pm by a magnitude 6.5 quake centered near Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳) at a depth of 66.8km. A magnitude 5.4 earthquake followed less than a minute later, with its epicenter near the county’s Datong Township (大同), at a depth of 67.3km. A magnitude 4.2 quake again struck Nanao at 2:05pm at a depth of 63km. The magnitude 6.5 earthquake was the strongest quake recorded in Taiwan this year. Its intensity, which measures its actual effect, reached 4 on the nation’s 7-tier intensity scale in northern and northeastern Taiwan. A woman among a group of nine hikers was hurt by falling rocks at the Taroko National Park in Hualien County. A vehicle was damaged by falling rocks along the Suhua Highway, but no injuries were reported. The Taipei City Fire Department reported damage to several residential properties, including a water tower and detached eaves in Wenshan District (文山). The bigger earthquakes also damaged a tower crane in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊), causing its jib to bend 90 degrees. Some train and MRT services were halted so that carriages could be evacuated for teams to perform maintenance and safety checks. Taiwan Power Co (台電) said the quakes triggered seismic alert systems at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) and the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), but the plants did not sustain damage. Aftershocks of magnitude 4 or greater are expected over the next three days, the bureau said. Bureau Seismology Center Director Chen Kuo-chang (陳國昌) said the center’s initial assessment was that the magnitude 5.4 earthquake was
Taiwan’s decade-long ban on Japanese food imports from five Japanese prefectures following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster would be a key topic in bilateral negotiations now that Taiwan has applied to join a Tokyo-led trade bloc, said Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中), who heads the Cabinet’s Office of Trade Negotiations. The government needs to deal with its ban on imports of agricultural and food products from the five prefectures, Deng said in an interview with the Central News Agency. Although the Japanese government has said it would not make the issue’s resolution a condition for its support of Taipei’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Deng said the dispute has to be dealt with sooner or later. “Taiwan will bring the issue to the negotiation table once both sides begin official talks on joining the CPTPP,” he said. Some of the issues likely to be discussed during bilateral talks on lifting the ban would include specifying what kind of food and agricultural products would be allowed into Taiwan, which government agency would be responsible for inspecting the products imported from Japan and what kind of documents would be needed, he said. “Whether to lift the ban will be decided based solely on scientific evidence,” he added. Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP on Sept. 22. It is in talks with all 11 members of the bloc to seek their support and learn about their pressing issues, Deng said. Talks with Australia and Singapore are not expected to be too challenging, as Taiwan has no major trade disputes with them, he said, but added that talks with Vietnam are expected to be thorny, as Taipei and Hanoi compete in agricultural exports. Taiwan’s application to join the CPTPP came less than a week after China also applied for membership, suggesting
COVID-19 cases in eastern Europe are soon to surpass 20 million, according to a Reuters tally yesterday, as the region grapples with its worst outbreak since the pandemic started and inoculation efforts lag. Countries in the region have the lowest vaccination rates in Europe, with less than half of the population having received a single dose. Hungary tops the region’s vaccination rates with 62 percent of its population having received at least one shot, whereas Ukraine has given just 19 percent of its residents a single dose, according to Our World in Data. New infections in the region have steadily risen and average more than 83,700 new cases per day, the highest level since November last year, Reuters data through Friday showed. Although it has just 4 percent of the world’s population, eastern Europe accounts for about 20 percent of all new cases reported globally. More social gathering indoors after the lifting of restrictions just as winter sets in is driving a rise in COVID-19 infections in many countries across Europe, WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director Mike Ryan said on Thursday. A European Commission poll, the Eurobarometer, has shown that at least one person in three in most countries in the EU’s east does not trust the healthcare system, compared with a bloc average of 18 percent. More than 40 percent of all new cases reported in eastern Europe were in Russia, with 120 people testing positive every five minutes, according to a Reuters analysis. Russia’s healthcare system is operating under great strain, Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko said on Wednesday. The nation on Friday reported record COVID-19 fatalities for the fourth straight day. So far, Russia has vaccinated about 36 percent of its population with one dose. Moscow would next week shut down all businesses except essential stores, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, to
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that he had ordered 10 foreign ambassadors who called for the release of a jailed philanthropist to be declared persona non grata. The envoys, including the US, French and German representatives in Ankara, issued a statement earlier this week calling for a resolution to the case of Osman Kavala, a businessman and philanthropist held in prison since 2017, despite not having been convicted of a crime. Describing the statement as an “impudence,” Erdogan said he had ordered the ambassadors be declared undesirable. The diplomats, who also include the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and New Zealand, were summoned to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday. Kavala, 64, was acquitted last year of charges linked to nationwide anti-government protests in 2013, but the ruling was overturned and joined to charges relating to a 2016 coup attempt. International observers and human rights groups have repeatedly called for the release of Kavala and Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, who has been jailed since 2016. They say their imprisonment is based on political considerations. After Erdogan’s order was reported, the US State Department said in a statement that “we are aware of these reports and are seeking clarity from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, said Erdogan was “rapidly dragging the country to a precipice.” Sinan Ulgen, chairman of Istanbul-based think tank Edam, said Erdogan’s timing was incongruous, as Turkey was seeking to recalibrate its foreign policy away from episodes of tension in recent years. “I still hope that Ankara will not go through with this,” he wrote on Twitter. Additional reporting by Reuters
DOWN, NOT OUT: The election was not a total defeat, as Chen still received 73,433 votes against the recall, and his party has ‘grown up’ through the process, he said
Voters in Taichung yesterday recalled Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟), making him the first legislator in the nation’s history to lose a recall election. A total of 77,899 votes were cast to recall Chen, while 73,433 voted against, the Taichung City Election Commission said, adding that 51.72 percent of the city’s second electoral district turned out. The Central Election Commission is to confirm the final figures within the next seven days, it said. Commission data showed that there are 294,976 eligible voters in the second district, comprised of Dadu (大肚), Shalu (沙鹿), Longjing (龍井), Wufong (霧峰) and Wurih (烏日) districts. Chen won the seat in January last year in an election against then-incumbent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), a member of a powerful political family in Taichung and the son of former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標). Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), 25 percent of eligible voters — 73,744 for the second district — must vote in favor of a recall to meet a threshold for an election to be valid. A by-election is to be held within three months to fill the legislative seat, the commission said. After the outcome was announced, Chen thanked supporters gathered at his Taichung campaign headquarters, where he led other Taiwan Statebuilding Party officials and staff in a bow. Chen said that it was not a total defeat, as “I had won last time, and had gained the working experience as a legislator for one year and nine months. Through this recall campaign, our party has also grown up. We are a small party, and it was hard to mobilize initially. Now our party has matured.” Referring to the 73,433 votes against the recall, Chen said that “we did not lose this battle,” as that number was quite close to the threshold. “It
CLARIFYING HISTORY: A memorial to Chen Wen-chen was completed in February, but students and faculty complained that it lacked context about who it was for
A plaque at Chen Wen-chen (陳文成) Memorial Square is to include a phrase indicating that Chen was likely murdered, the National Taiwan University (NTU) school affairs council said yesterday. Chen, an assistant professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, died while visiting Taiwan. His body was found on the morning of July 3, 1981, outside the library on the NTU campus in Taipei. A day earlier, the 31-year-old had been detained and interrogated by the now-defunct Taiwan Garrison Command, a secret police body which sought to question him about his financial contributions to the pro-democracy Formosa Magazine. Some people suspect that Chen was tortured to death by the authorities and his body later dumped on the campus. The agency denied the allegations. The Taiwan Garrison Command said at the time that Chen could have committed suicide or accidentally fallen off a balcony at the university. NTU students and faculty have long been at odds after the square was completed in February without any text to introduce or indicate who the square was commemorating. Student council representatives had previously requested text that read: “To commemorate a brave individual who resolutely defied state violence,” which they said would enhance the square’s function to teach about democracy and human rights. The decision had been unanimously passed and the words added to a wall near the square last month. The school affairs council yesterday said that in addition to the text on the wall, the university would add a plaque bearing an introduction of the square to visitors. Student council president Chang Cheng-yu (張承宇) said that after extensive discussions with university authorities, a description on the introductory plaque that retold the incident would include at the end the words: “According to a 2020 report by the Transitional Justice Committee, there is a high possibility that Chen was murdered.” The plaque adds that the student
A Taiwanese delegation to Slovakia signed seven memorandums of understanding (MOU) with public and private entities, including a space technology pact that would bring to Taiwan a project related to a blockchain application used by the European Space Agency, officials said on Friday. The 66-person delegation led by National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) and Minister of Science and Technology Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) yesterday concluded their three-day visit to Slovakia. The two sides on Thursday held a bilateral cooperation conference to exchange views on technology, higher education and innovative research, the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement yesterday. The Taiwanese delegation was received by Slovak Academy of Sciences vice president for international relations Zuzana Panczova and other representatives from the Slovak Ministry of Education and Slovak Research and Development Agency, it said. Since the ministry and the academy in 1996 signed a science and technology cooperation agreement, they have funded more than 20 three-year joint research projects, the ministry said. Wu on Friday witnessed the signing of an MOU by the Taiwan Space Industry Development Association, the Slovak space company 3IPK and its partner company Decent, laying the foundation for a trilateral cooperation framework, it said. The association was represented by chairman Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信), who is also the director-general of the National Space Organization, it said. The two Slovak companies in February had visited the space organization’s headquarters at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) along with Slovak Economic and Cultural Office Taipei Representative Martin Podstavek. With the office’s support, 3IPK and Decent would provide a proof of concept project in Taiwan based on a blockchain application used by the European Space Agency, the ministry said. Decent is a start-up supplying blockchain software as a service, while 3IPK is a space blockchain company that became a member of the Slovak Security and Defense Industry Association
As supporters of former US president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, battling police and forcing lawmakers into hiding, an insurrection of a different kind was taking place inside the world’s largest social media company. Thousands of kilometers away, in California, Facebook engineers were racing to tweak internal controls to slow the spread of misinformation and inciting content. Emergency actions — some of which were rolled back after last year’s election — included banning Trump, freezing comments in groups with a record for hate speech, filtering out the “Stop the Steal” rallying cry and empowering content moderators to act more assertively by labeling the US a “Temporary High Risk Location” for political violence. At the same time, frustration inside Facebook erupted over what some saw as the company’s halting and inconsistent response to rising extremism in the US. “Haven’t we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?” one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. “We’ve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn’t be surprised it’s now out of control.” It is a question that hangs over the company as the US Congress and regulators investigate its role part in the Jan. 6 riots. New internal documents provided by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen provide a rare glimpse into how the company appears to have simply stumbled into the riot. It quickly became clear that even after years under the microscope for insufficiently policing its platform, the social network had missed how riot participants spent weeks vowing — on Facebook itself — to stop Congress from certifying US President Joe Biden’s election victory. An internal report found that 10 percent of political content viewed by US Facebook users in the days after the election perpetuated the falsehood
The UN fears an even greater human rights catastrophe in Myanmar amid reports of thousands of troops massing in the north of the Southeast Asian country, which has been in chaos since a February coup, it said on Friday. “We should all be prepared, as the people in this part of Myanmar are prepared, for even more mass atrocity crimes. I desperately hope that I am wrong,” UN special rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews said. More than 1,100 civilians have been killed in the country’s crackdown on dissent and more than 8,000 arrested since the coup, a local monitoring group said. Andrews, who was presenting the findings of an annual human rights report on Myanmar to the General Assembly, said that he had received information that tens of thousands of troops and heavy weapons were being moved into restive regions in the north and northwest. The findings also indicated that the junta had engaged in probable crimes against humanity and war crimes, he said. “These tactics are ominously reminiscent of those employed by the military before its genocidal attacks against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017,” Andrews said. About 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017 after security forces launched a clampdown that the UN has said could amount to genocide. Andrews urged countries to deny Myanmar’s military junta the money, weapons and legitimacy it desires, citing a prisoner release earlier in the week as evidence that pressure was working. On Monday, Burmese Army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing announced the release of more than 5,000 people jailed for protesting against the coup. The move came just days after ASEAN delivered a major snub to the military regime, excluding the junta head from an upcoming summit of the 10-country bloc. “ASEAN’s announcement that the junta will not be welcome at its upcoming summit strikes at the
MILITARY RESOLVE: Washington does not want a cold war with Beijing, it just wants ‘China to understand that we’re not going to step back,’ Biden told a CNN town hall
The US would come to Taiwan’s defense and has a commitment to defend the nation China claims as its own, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday, although the White House later said there was no change in policy toward Taiwan. “Yes, we have a commitment to do that,” Biden said at a CNN town hall meeting when asked if the US would come to the defense of Taiwan, which has been facing mounting military and political pressure from Beijing to accept Chinese sovereignty. While Washington is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, it has long followed a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. In August, a Biden administration official said US policy on Taiwan had not changed, after the president appeared to suggest the US would defend the nation if it were attacked. A White House spokesperson said Biden at his town hall was not announcing any change in US policy and “there is no change in our policy,” but declined further comment when asked if Biden had misspoken. “The US defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act. We will uphold our commitment under the act, we will continue to support Taiwan’s self-defense, and we will continue to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo,” the spokesperson said. Biden said people should not worry about Washington’s military resolve, because “China, Russia and the rest of the world knows we’re the most powerful military in the history of the world.” “What you do have to worry about is whether or not they’re going to engage in activities that would put them in a position where they may make a serious mistake,” Biden said. “I don’t want a cold war with China. I just
MUTUAL LOSS: By excluding Taiwan from the UN, ‘Beijing is denying the international community the ability to gain valuable contributions that Taiwan offers,’ an official said
Beijing has inaccurately interpreted a UN resolution adopted in 1971 to exclude Taiwan from the international organization and its affiliates, a US Department of State official said on Thursday. “The People’s Republic of China [PRC] has misused Resolution 2758 to prevent Taiwan’s meaningful participation,” said Rick Waters, deputy assistant secretary of state in the department’s Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, during a virtual talk hosted by the Washington-based German Marshall Fund. Waters said that Taiwan’s exclusion from UN activities “creates an immense cost” to the nation, as well as the bloc’s members, adding that “Beijing is denying the international community the ability to gain valuable contributions that Taiwan offers.” In the resolution adopted on Oct. 25, 1971, the UN General Assembly decided to “expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it.” In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the US for firmly supporting Taiwan’s bid to join UN organizations. “The Republic of China is a democratic country with independent sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the nation and the PRC are not subordinate to each other. Only an elected government in Taiwan can represent its 23.5 million people on international occasions, including the UN, the ministry said. The resolution only addressed the PRC’s representation in the UN without authorizing it to represent Taiwan, nor did it mention that Taiwan is part of the PRC, it said. The PRC has been intentionally abusing the resolution to pressure the UN into excluding Taiwanese from its system, it added. The ministry denounced Beijing prioritizing its political maneuvers over the interests of global cooperation, while calling on international society to face China’s “overt plot” against Taiwan. The government would continue to bolster its cooperation with the US and other
Forty-three countries on Thursday kept up pressure on China at the UN over accusations of rights abuses against Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, sparking an angry response from China’s UN envoy. While the group of mostly Western nations criticizes China annually in the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee, that rebuke was joined this year for the first time by countries including Turkey, Eswatini and Liberia. The new additions to last year’s group, which included 39 nations, help push back against Chinese claims that the rebuke is part of a Western effort to keep China from rising. In a statement — part of which was read by French Ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Riviere to the General Assembly rights committee — they voiced concern about increasing “reports of widespread and systematic human rights violations,” accusing China of detaining more than 1 million people in camps. They said the abuse accusations included “reports documenting torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, forced sterilization, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced separation of children.” Beijing denies all allegations of abuse of Uighurs and describes the camps as vocational training facilities to combat religious extremism. Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun (張軍) hit back in a statement partly read to the committee. “To the US and a few other countries: Your desperate attempts to cover up your own terrible human rights record will not work,” he said. “No matter how many times repeated, lies are still lies,” he added. “You are using human rights as a pretext for political maneuvering to provoke confrontation.” Although Zhang said that China was willing to host a “friendly” visit to the region, he did not agree to an inquiry by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who has been trying to negotiate access to Xinjiang to verify human rights abuse
Police in Hualien yesterday arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of murdering a 76-year-old woman who raised him and allegedly stealing more than NT$100,000. The man, surnamed Lee (李), was arrested early yesterday morning after the family of the woman, surnamed Yang (楊), found her dead in her living room in New Taipei City on Thursday. An autopsy showed that Yang had been stabbed multiple times, including three times in the head, once in the chest and 18 times in the back, the New Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office said. Lee reportedly told prosecutors that after he learned that Yang, with whom he had lived until last month, had NT$360,000 at home, he left his job early on Wednesday afternoon, bought a knife and confronted Yang about the money. When Yang refused to answer his questions, Lee said he stabbed her multiple times, searched the house and stole about NT$100,000, before leaving for Hualien County, where he stayed with a friend, surnamed You (游), prosecutors said. Friends and family of Yang said that Lee’s paternal grandmother was a close acquaintance of Yang, who she asked to care for Lee shortly after his birth, due to his father’s criminal history and as his mother had mental illnesses. Yang raised Lee, but as he grew older, he spent most of his time playing online video games and began asking the family for money, they said, adding that he allegedly stole from them when they refused to comply. Members of the Yang family had asked Lee to move out of the home in the middle of last month, but Yang, without their knowledge, arranged for Lee to rent a unit nearby, they said.
US actor Alec Baldwin on Thursday fired a prop gun on a movie set and killed the cinematographer, authorities said. The director of the Western being filmed was wounded, and authorities are investigating what happened. Halyna Hutchins, cinematographer on the movie Rust, and director Joel Souza were shot on the rustic film set in the desert on the southern outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s officials said. A spokesperson for Baldwin said there was an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks, although a charge without a metal projectile is unlikely to kill at a moderate distance. Sheriff’s spokesman Juan Rios said detectives were investigating how and what type of projectile was discharged. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that the 63-year-old Baldwin was seen on Thursday outside the sheriff’s office in tears, but attempts to get comment from him were unsuccessful. Hutchins, 42, was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead by medical personnel, the sheriff’s department said. Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance to Christus St Vincent Regional Medical Center, where he is undergoing treatment. “The details are unclear at this moment, but we are working to learn more, and we support a full investigation into this tragic event,” International Cinematographers Guild president John Lindley and executive director Rebecca Rhine said in a statement. Sheriff’s deputies responded at about 2pm to the movie set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch after 911 calls described a person being shot on set, Rios said. “This investigation remains open and active,” Rios said in a statement. “No charges have been filed in regard to this incident. Witnesses continue to be interviewed by detectives.” Hutchins, a 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute, worked as director of photography on last year’s action film Archenemy, starring Joe Manganiello. She was
DIPLOMATIC ALLY: The European Parliament report — passed 580 to 26 — said the bloc must do more to address tensions with Beijing and protect Taiwanese democracy
The European Parliament yesterday passed a report calling for closer cooperation between Taiwan and the eurozone on political, economic and cultural affairs. Meeting in Strasbourg, France, the members of the European Parliament voted 580 to 26, with 66 abstentions, in favor of the report on EU-Taiwan political relations and cooperation. The lawmakers hailed Taiwan as a key EU partner and democratic ally, and a contributor to the rule-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region amid intensifying geopolitical tensions, the European Parliament said in a news release. A bilateral economic agreement between the EU and Taiwan should be designed, and the bloc must do more to address tensions with China and protect Taiwanese democracy, the statement added. The report urged European states to bolster official ties with Taiwan, while pursuing closer relations, such as economic, scientific, cultural and personal interactions, including high-level exchanges. The conduct of interactions is to be guided by the EU’s “one China” policy, the European Parliament said. The European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan should be renamed the European Office in Taiwan, it added, while voicing support for the proposed establishment of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania. EU lawmakers condemn Bejing’s economic sanctions against Lithuania, it said. In the report, the European Parliament additionally voiced support for Taiwan’s bid to take part in the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, Interpol and the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change. “[The] parliament insists that any change to Chinese-Taiwanese relations must be neither unilateral nor against the will of Taiwanese citizens,” it said, before warning of a “direct connection between European prosperity and Asian security.” In Taipei, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the resolution reflects a groundswell of popular support in Europe for Taiwan and that it marked the progress Taipei has achieved in fostering better ties with the bloc. The nations of the world are viewing
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) is next week to visit Slovakia and the Czech Republic to enhance ties with the central European countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. In Slovakia, Wu would give a keynote speech on Tuesday next week at a conference on “Resilience in a post-pandemic world” hosted by the Bratislava-based think tank GLOBSEC, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said. Wu would then travel to Prague, where he is to receive a medal from Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil to honor the minister as a special guest of the country, and meet with Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib. Wu would also speak at a seminar cohosted by the Czech Academy of Sciences and Prague-based think tank Sinopsis, Ou said. Although Wu would not attend a conference organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China in Rome on Friday next week, “due to a tight schedule and each country’s COVID-19 prevention rules,” he would speak at the conference virtually, Ou said. Wu’s European trip to two countries with which Taiwan has no official diplomatic relations is rare for a Taiwanese foreign minister, given that the countries usually face strong pressure from Beijing to prevent such trips. The ministry did not say when Wu is expected to depart or when he would return. Wu’s visit coincides with one by a trade delegation led by National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫). The 66-person delegation departed on Wednesday to visit the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania, as part of the government’s efforts to boost trade and economic ties with central and east European countries. The visit ends on Saturday next week. While Wu’s visit would not overlap with the trade delegation’s itinerary, it shares the same goals of expressing the strategic importance of Taiwan, its economic strength and its resolve to defend its democracy, Ou said. Taiwan plays a
SKEPTICAL: Long-time US diplomat Nicholas Burns said that China has been the ‘aggressor’ in its relationship with Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines
US President Joe Biden’s pick to be ambassador to China drew sharp lines with Beijing over its “aggressive” actions in the Indo-Pacific region, but said that “American strength” gives the US key advantages in the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. Nicholas Burns, a long-time diplomat who previously served as US ambassador to NATO and Greece, said that China has been the “aggressor” in its relationship with Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines. He also said that he is skeptical about Chinese intentions on issues such as 5G technology, but he emphasized his view that the US has the upper hand. “Beijing proclaims that the East is rising and the West is in decline,” Burns said. “I’m confident in our own country. The People’s Republic of China is not an Olympian power.” Burns singled out China’s frequent incursions of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone as particularly egregious, saying it is clear that “they intend to take back Taiwan” and that the US needs to redouble efforts to prevent that from happening. “Our responsibility is to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack,” Burns said, while dismissing a suggestion that the US ditch its policy of “strategic ambiguity.” “We’re better off, and we’ll be more effective, in staying with the one China policy of the last four decades,” he said, without clarifying its position on Taiwan’s sovereignty. In Taipei yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the Biden administration for reiterating the US’ commitment to Taiwan. The threatening posture that Beijing has adopted toward Taiwan is affecting regional security and stability, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said. Many countries, including the US, have become increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s belligerence, Ou said, referring to what Burns had said at his confirmation hearing: “We certainly cannot trust the Chinese.” Taiwan would continue to bolster its self-defense capabilities and safeguard its democracy, she
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged the UN not to yield to China, stressing that UN Resolution 2758 does not say that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) can represent Taiwan. The ministry issued the remarks as Monday next week marks the 50th anniversary of the resolution, which gave the Repulic of China’s seat in the UN to the PRC. In the resolution adopted on Oct. 25, 1971, the UN General Assembly decided to “expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it.” Since then, Taiwan has not been represented at the UN. The ministry yesterday reiterated that the resolution only deals with the issue of China’s representation in the UN system. It does not say that Taiwan is part of the PRC, nor does it authorize the PRC to represent the people of Taiwan, the ministry said. Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said it is regretful that the UN Secretariat has persisted in making incorrect references to the resolution and in expanding a false interpretation that backs Beijing’s assertion that “Taiwan is a province of China.” Meanwhile, it refuses to allow Taiwanese to enter UN facilities, denies Taiwan the opportunity to engage in UN forums and even rejects applications from Taiwanese media to cover events inside the UN, she said. The PRC has never governed Taiwan, and does not have the right to represent the people of Taiwan, Ou added. The ministry urged the UN not bow to China’s political pressure, and not to expand the interpretation of Resolution 2758, which has excluded Taiwan for too long.
Southeast Asia’s regional bloc should do some “soul-searching” on its policy of not interfering in members’ internal affairs so that it can deal effectively with issues such as the crisis in Myanmar, Malaysia said yesterday. The comments came after ASEAN members last week excluded Myanmar’s military leader, Burmese Army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, from an upcoming leaders’ summit, a rare rebuke. ASEAN members have accused the Burmese military of failing to stick to a roadmap they drew up together, which was supposed to defuse the crisis that erupted in Myanmar after a February coup. Following the snub, Myanmar accused the bloc of breaking its decades-old policy of not meddling in each others’ domestic affairs — which critics say has made the grouping “toothless.” Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah said he understood that the policy is “almost sacrosanct” in ASEAN, and had been “useful and practical” in the past. “But when we are faced with situations like the one that is currently occurring in Myanmar, then perhaps ASEAN should actually do some soul-searching,” he said at a virtual dialogue on human rights in Myanmar. “As much as the issue in Myanmar is local and national ... it has [an] impact on the region and we should also recognize the concerns of the other nine member states,” he said. The military leader was excluded after authorities refused to allow an ASEAN special envoy to meet with ousted Burmese civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Southeast Asian bloc has been under international pressure to address unrest and the Burmese military’s brutal crackdown on dissent. Diplomatic sources have said that key ASEAN members, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, have pushed for tough action to stop the group’s credibility from being tarnished.
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