The top US defense official on China arrived in Taiwan yesterday, the Financial Times reported, although Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said he was “not very certain” about the plan just hours before the arrival of US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China Michael Chase.
The newspaper confirmed the arrival, citing one of four sources who earlier said Chase would visit Taiwan this week.
Asked on the sidelines of a legislative session in the morning about Chase’s plan, Chiu said that “those who are friendly to us” are welcome to visit Taiwan.
Photo: screen grab from an American Enterprise Institute livestream
“But so far it is not very certain,” he told reporters. “I won’t explain the details... I won’t explain until I get formal notification.”
The Financial Times said the Pentagon declined to comment on the visit, but cited it as saying that the US’ “support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China.”
“Our commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners told the newspaper.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
Chase is the most senior US defense official to visit Taiwan since 2019, when then-US deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia Heino Klinck visited.
In November 2020, US Navy Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, who at the time was in charge of intelligence at the US Indo-Pacific Command, made an unannounced visit to Taiwan, and the Financial Times reported that Studeman made another visit last year as Chinese and Russian bombers flew a mission over the Sea of Japan.
Separately, a top Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) official on Thursday said that US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy would “definitely” visit Taiwan this year, even though the speaker has yet to announce the plan.
KMT Department of International Affairs director Alexander Huang (黃介正) made the remarks in an interview after concluding a visit to the US on Saturday.
Talks with McCarthy’s aides and aides to other Republicans on Capitol Hill suggest that the speaker is planning to visit Taiwan this year, Huang said.
Even aides to Democratic US representatives did not rule out a visit by McCarthy, he said.
Huang said McCarthy, who was sworn in last month, is still new to his position, which potentially affects his travel schedule.
US media last month reported that the Pentagon is preparing a security detail for a Taiwan visit by the speaker in the spring.
Referring to a visit by McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, in August last year, Huang said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) seemed “underprepared” for her visit.
There were four months between Pelosi’s initial comments that she would like to visit Taiwan and her arrival, Huang said.
The DPP had enough time to plan the visit with US agencies and predict China’s reaction, he added.
Huang said that the DPP frequently claims that Taiwan-US ties are at their “all-time best,” but it has yet to prove it by showing the public that it can clearly communicate with US agencies before McCarthy’s planned visit.
SHOW OF SUPPORT: As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan might collaborate with Manila against China’s aggressive actions, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea. The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard. Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement. A Chinese
‘LIKE A BLACK HOLE’: The figure is about 7% of China’s reported military spending, although diplomats and experts say that number is often opaque or not fully inclusive China spent about US$15 billion, or 7 percent of its defense budget, on exercises in the western Pacific last year, according to a previously unpublished Taiwanese estimate, showing Beijing’s investment in military activity around Taiwan and its neighbors. The internal research by the military, reviewed by Reuters, offers a rare look into a slice of China’s defense spending as Beijing has ramped up its military presence amid rising tensions in the region. China claims Taiwan as its own and is also locked in disputes with several nations over sovereignty of large parts of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. “This
‘GLOBAL THREAT’: MOFA said that it welcomes the ‘staunch US support’ and that ‘China again made spurious claims about Taiwan that do not accord with reality’ US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stressed the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait, while a senior Chinese military official warned the US to stop “collusion” with Taiwan in a rare one-on-one meeting yesterday, both sides said. Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, the first US national security adviser to visit China since 2016, for three days of talks with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and other high-ranking officials. Yesterday morning, Sullivan met with Zhang Youxia (張又俠), vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and China’s second-highest-ranking military official, at the Beijing headquarters of the commission.
PRESSURE: The Solomon Islands, acting under explicit instructions from Beijing, is aiming to prevent Taiwan from attending the next forum to be held in Honiara Australia has voiced support for Taiwan despite the Solomon Islands’ plan to undermine Taiwan’s status as an observer at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The forum is one of the most important international organizations in the Pacific region, made up of 18 member states, including Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan’s Pacific allies, associate members and observers, along with “dialogue partners” such as the US, Japan, Canada and the EU. The 53rd edition of the forum opened in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, yesterday. Taiwan has been taking part in the forum and related events as a “developmental partner” under the name Taiwan / Republic of