A bipartisan group of 52 US senators on Wednesday urged US President Joe Biden to include Taiwan in the in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), amid concerns that Taiwan would be left out of the agreement.
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and Republican Senator Jim Risch led 50 other senators from both parties in penning a letter to Biden, saying that including Taiwan in the IPEF would be an invaluable signal of Washington’s “rock solid commitment” to Taiwan, and its prosperity and freedom, they said in a press release.
Expressing their concerns that “Taiwan will not be included in the proposed IPEF,” the senators underlined the important role that Taiwan plays in global supply chains, and in trade and economic relationships with the US, as well as the potential consequences of Taiwan’s exclusion.
Photo: Reuters
“Excluding Taiwan from IPEF would significantly distort the regional and global economic architecture, run counter to US economic interests, and allow the Chinese government to claim that the international community does not in fact support meaningful engagement with Taiwan,” the letter read.
The IPEF, an initiative that Biden proposed last year, aims to enhance the US’ economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.
It has yet to be clearly defined. A US Congressional Research Service report last month said the framework would include modules covering “fair and resilient trade, supply chain resilience, infrastructure and decarbonization, and tax and anticorruption.”
Thanking the US senators for their support, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) yesterday said the ministry would push for Taiwan’s inclusion in the IPEF “step by step” through the “direct channels of communication” between the ministry and the US.
The senators’ support showed that Taiwan’s important role in global supply chains has been recognized by the US, which is a positive development in Taiwan’s pursuit of IPEF inclusion, Wang said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economic Committee.
Media reports in recent months, citing unnamed sources, said that Taiwan was not among the US’ prospective IPEF partners, despite Taipei’s repeated expressions of interest in joining it.
An article published by Politico on Feb. 28 quoted a former US trade official, who asked not to be identified, as saying that she did not believe the Biden administration would allow Taiwan into the IPEF.
“I think the challenge with Taiwan is that this is the administration’s initiative on Asia, and they have been fairly cognizant of the fact that other countries will not want to be associated with an initiative that is seen to be primarily an anti-China coalition,” the former official said.
In an article on March 31, Reuters, quoting unnamed sources, said that US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told a closed-door meeting of the US Senate Committee on Finance the week before that the Biden administration was not contemplating Taiwan’s inclusion at this time.
When asked by US lawmakers in recent months whether Taiwan would be invited to join the IPEF, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) were noncommittal and did not offer specifics.
A bipartisan group of 200 US House representatives on March 30 sent a letter to Raimondo and Tai to petition for Taiwan’s inclusion in the IPEF.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a
RSS