The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked US Representative Ted Yoho, who on Friday announced plans to submit a bill to the US House of Representatives to authorize the US president to respond with military force if China attacks Taiwan.
The ministry would monitor the bill’s progress and, together with the US, promote regional peace, stability and prosperity, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
During an interview on Fox Business Network’s Red Storm, host Lou Dobbs asked Yoho whether the US government was doing enough to back Taiwan amid China’s constant threats.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
“This [bill] is something that’s going to lay very clear what our intent is,” Yoho said. “In fact, it will go to the point where it authorizes an AUMF [Authorization for Use of Military Force] if China invades Taiwan, and it’ll be a sunset for five years, that AUMF, that would authorize the president to use force.”
Under the US’ Taiwan Relations Act, which took effect in 1979, Washington is committed to sell Taiwan enough weapons to defend itself, he said.
“But when [Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has announced that he’s ready to draw blood over Taiwan and reunify them, they forgot to ask Taiwan,” Yoho said. “Taiwan has never been part of the People’s Republic of China, and nor do they want to.”
The bill would be titled the “Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act,” and he planned to introduce it this week, he said.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
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‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
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