Taiwan is concerned about delays in the delivery of weapons by Washington, US Representative Mike Gallagher told US media following a visit to Taiwan.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) yesterday said Gallagher met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) during his visit from Friday last week to Monday.
Gallagher chairs the US House of Representatives Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
Photo: AP
Presidential Office spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka confirmed Tsai’s meeting with Gallagher, adding that Taiwan welcomes visits by international friends, and hopes to work with them to safeguard democracy, freedom and peace.
In an interview with the Washington Post published on Wednesday, Gallagher said every Taiwanese official he met said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made Taiwan realize the need to acquire and stockpile advanced weapons.
Taiwanese leaders are concerned about delays in arms deliveries from the US, he said.
“I think that’s unacceptable,” Gallagher said.
Taiwan faces a US$19 billion arms backlog, including crucial weapons such as Harpoon anti-ship missiles and F-16 jets, the Post reported, quoting one congressional aide as saying that Harpoons “aren’t likely to begin arriving in real numbers until 2027 at the earliest.”
Gallagher said he hopes the committee can help push the US to “arm Taiwan to the teeth,” as it is “our best chance of preventing an invasion of Taiwan, and of essentially preventing World War III.”
Taiwan is “doing everything we could ask of them” to boost its own defense, such as increasing defense spending to 2.4 percent of its GDP, he said.
Gallagher reiterated similar views in an opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, saying the US “must do a better job of countering the [Chinese] Communist Party’s malign influence operations in Taiwan,” including clearing the backlog of military sales.
“Repression is spreading outward all around the periphery of China — Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong. The darkness presses beyond China’s borders, slithering into multinational institutions, over the Internet, throughout the global financial system. Against the darkness stands a candle that burns freely, fiercely, improbably in opposition: Taiwan,” he added.
Speaking about US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s plan to visit Taipei, Gallagher said he was not aware of any active plans for the trip, but added: “If he wants to go, he certainly can.”
Gallagher said he plans to hold a select committee hearing in Taiwan by summer and report the findings to McCarthy, who can then make his plans with better information.
Gallagher and US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries might visit Taiwan after the presidential election early next year, he added.
The foreign ministry has not received information about a possible hearing or McCarthy’s visit to Taiwan, but welcomes visits by US lawmakers, Liu said, adding that the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US would keep in close contact with the US Congress about related plans.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS