The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman for supporting Lithuania developing ties with Taiwan during her call with Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis.
Sherman and Landsbergis during their talk on Friday “emphasized the strength and breadth of the US-Lithuanian bilateral relationship, which is grounded in our NATO Alliance; strengthening US-EU cooperation, including on China; and our common commitment to advance peace, prosperity, security, democracy, and human rights in the Transatlantic region and across the globe,” US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Sherman “reiterated the United States is resolute in our solidarity with our NATO Ally and EU partner Lithuania, including standing with them in the face of the People’s Republic of China’s recent coercive behavior in response to Lithuania’s decision to develop mutually beneficial ties with Taiwan,” he said.
Photo: CNA
The Baltic country’s relations with China soured after it agreed with Taiwan’s plan to establish a Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania. It also plans to open a representative office in Taiwan this fall.
Lithuanian Ambassador to China Diana Mickeviciene on Wednesday said she had been asked to leave the country, one day after Beijing recalled its Ambassador Shen Zhifei (申知非) from Vilnius.
“Our strength is our allies & shared conviction that freedom & democracy will prevail,” Landsbergis wrote on Twitter yesterday.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement thanked the US for its firm support.
Washington has demonstrated its position as a leader of the global alliance of democracies at a time when other democratic countries are facing coercion by an authoritarian regime, the ministry said.
The ministry reiterated its stance that it would continue to promote practical and mutually beneficial relations with other like-minded partners, without flinching due to any outside pressure.
The Taipei Mission in the Republic of Latvia, which also oversees relations with Lithuania, on Friday rejected a statement published by the Chinese embassy in Lithuania in a local newspaper on Saturday last week.
The Chinese embassy’s statement that “Taiwan is part of China” is misleading and false, the mission said in a statement.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) is a sovereign state that has never been governed by the People’s Republic of China, it said.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS