Taiwan is committed to maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told visiting US lawmakers yesterday.
Tsai made the pledge as she met with a bipartisan congressional delegation led by US Senator Ed Markey at the Presidential Office.
The unannounced two-day trip came after Beijing held live-fire military exercises in waters around Taiwan in the wake of a visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Aug. 3 to Aug. 4, the first visit by a sitting US House speaker since 1997.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
Members of the delegation include US representatives John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal, Don Beyer and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen.
Tsai thanked Markey for voting for the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 and helping Taiwan secure COVID-19 vaccines last year.
China has been conducting prolonged military exercises in waters surrounding Taiwan, greatly affecting regional peace and stability, Tsai said.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
“We are engaging in close cooperation with allies to closely monitor the situation. At the same time, we are doing everything we can to let the world know that Taiwan is determined to safeguard our stability and the status quo of the Taiwan Strait,” she said.
Aside from asking for the delegation’s support for a bilateral trade agreement, Tsai also said that Taiwan hopes to sign an agreement with the US to prevent double taxation to facilitate investment between the two countries.
Markey told Tsai that he has been a supporter of Taiwan, and is one of the few members of congress still in office who voted for the Taiwan Relations Act.
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, Markey said that he introduced bipartisan bills that support stability measures to lower the risk of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, invest in multilateral engagement with Taiwan and open the door to greater self-defense cooperation.
Aside from being an important beacon of democracy, human rights and free speech in the region, Taiwan has been a leader in the fight against COVID-19, and has become a global technology and manufacturing powerhouse, particularly in semiconductors, he said.
“At this moment of uncertainty, we must do everything we can to maintain peace and stability for Taiwan,” Markey said. “We have a moral obligation to do everything we can to prevent unnecessary conflicts, and Taiwan has demonstrated incredible restraint and discretion in very challenging times.”
The delegation later arrived at the Legislative Yuan for a one-hour meeting with lawmakers on the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee to exchange views on military tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), who took part in the meeting, told reporters that lawmakers and the delegation exchanged views on Taiwan-US relations, regional security and China’s military activity, but no specific details of US arms sales to Taiwan were discussed.
“The timing of the delegation’s visit is significant, as the purpose of China’s military exercises is to intimidate members of the US government so they do not visit Taiwan,” Lo said.
“The visit showed that China has no right to dictate and interfere with the plans of other countries’ politicians to visit Taiwan. In the meantime, their visit conveys an important message that the US is standing with the people of Taiwan,” Lo said.
A closed-door meeting allowed for a more frank and honest discussion over issues among participants, he added.
“Our lawmakers focused on a potential shift in US foreign policy on Taiwan from strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity, as well as the US’ security pledges to Taiwan,” Lo said. “Our hope is that the US will move to a position of strategic clarity.”
Increased military cooperation between Taiwan and the US is necessary, as it is the only way to handle potential crises, Lo said, adding that US strategies in the Indo-Pacific region would not be complete without Taiwan participating in the Rim of the Pacific Exercises.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
RSS