A top Japanese defense official on Friday urged US president-elect Joe Biden to “be strong” in supporting Taiwan in the face of an aggressive China, calling the nation’s safety a “red line.”
“We are concerned China will expand its aggressive stance into areas other than Hong Kong. I think one of the next targets, or what everyone is worried about, is Taiwan,” Japanese State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama said in an interview.
Nakayama urged Biden to take a similar line on Taiwan as US President Donald Trump, who has significantly boosted military sales to the nation and increased engagement with it.
Photo: Reuters
Japan’s engagement with Taiwan has also flourished in the past few years on a largely non-governmental basis.
Tokyo maintains a “one China” policy, delicately balancing its relationships with neighboring giant China and its longtime military ally in Washington.
Japan shares strategic interests with Taiwan, which sits in sea lanes through which much of Japan’s energy supplies and trade flow.
“So far, I haven’t yet seen a clear policy or an announcement on Taiwan from Joe Biden. I would like to hear it quickly, then we can also prepare our response on Taiwan in accordance,” Nakayama said.
During the presidential campaign, Biden called for strengthening ties with Taiwan and other “like-minded democracies.”
Decades ago as a US senator, Biden questioned whether the US had an “obligation” to defend Taiwan, but many in his foreign policy circles acknowledge that US imperatives have changed as a rising, authoritarian China has become more assertive and sought to shape global institutions.
An official in Biden’s transition team said that the president-elect believes US support for Taiwan “must remain strong, principled and bipartisan.”
“Once in office, he will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan,” the official said.
Beijing has been angered by increased US support for Taiwan, including arms sales and visits to Taipei by senior US officials, further straining already poor US-China ties.
“Taiwan is China’s internal affair,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said on Friday. “We firmly oppose interference in China’s internal affairs by any country or anyone by any means.”
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that there was strong bipartisan US support for Taiwan based on the “shared language” of freedom and democracy.
“Taiwan looks forward to working closely with the Biden team, to continue to steadily improve Taiwan-US relations on the basis of the existing solid friendship,” she said.
US officials in Tokyo could not be reached as the embassy was closed for Christmas.
“There’s a red line in Asia: China and Taiwan,” Nakayama said, citing a red line that former US president Barack Obama declared over Syria’s use of chemical weapons — a line Damascus then crossed.
Biden was Obama’s vice president.
“How will Joe Biden in the White House react in any case if China crosses this red line?” said Nakayama, who attended a memorial for former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in August, before taking his defense position.
“The US is the leader of the democratic countries. I have a strong feeling to say: America, be strong,” Nakayama said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft