Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) applied to visit Beijing on Aug. 4 as the first volleys of China’s live-fire exercises splashed into waters around Taiwan, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said yesterday.
The KMT’s application to make contact with Chinese officials in Beijing was received by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on the first day of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) live-fire drills, Huang told a Yahoo TV online talk show (齊有此理) in a segment that aired yesterday.
MAC officials do not know whether the KMT arranged the trip before China announced the drills or was pressed into making it, he said, adding that officials advised the party that its timing was poor.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
“It was felt that [the trip] would send the wrong signal to the international community when we should be standing together in solidarity to show our determination to defend the country,” he said.
Asked to explain why US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not initially include Taiwan as a stop in her Asia tour, Huang said that Taiwan had been part of her itinerary before China threatened to shoot down her plane if she visited.
Washington did not disclose Pelosi’s plans to visit Taiwan until the last moment to help ensure her safety, he said.
Former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), the party’s Chiayi City mayoral candidate, said on the show that Pelosi had told him when he was in San Francisco in January that she would visit Taiwan this year.
Pelosi told him that she must show her support for free and democratic Taiwan before the US midterm elections in November, which could be her last in a long political career, Lee said.
Huang said that Pelosi’s visit was only a pretext for Bejing and that its drills were part of China’s long-term strategy to tighten its grip on the first island chain.
The PLA has steadily ratcheted up the intensity and frequency of its sea and air drills since April, he said, citing as an example a mission in June that circled Japan.
Beijing likely planned its latest drills as a prelude to further displays of military power, such as missile tests in the Pacific beyond the first island chain, he said, adding that these were planned regardless of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
There is no need for one country to control the semiconductor industry, which is complex and needs a division of labor, Taiwan’s top technology official said yesterday after US President Donald Trump criticized the nation’s chip dominance. Trump repeated claims on Thursday that Taiwan had taken the industry and he wanted it back in the US, saying he aimed to restore US chip manufacturing. National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) did not name Trump in a Facebook post, but referred to President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments on Friday that Taiwan would be a reliable partner in the
RSS