Taiwan is central to the global economy, and preventing a crisis or conflict across the Taiwan Strait should be a matter of concern for all US partners, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said on Friday.
Kritenbrink made the comment at a discussion on the importance of US alliances in the Indo-Pacific region hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, which was also attended by US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner.
Kritenbrink said the US is committed to investing in its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, and assisting them in building the collective capacity to mange the challenges they face, as that is the best way to manage the China challenge, which affects them as well as the US.
Photo: Screengrab from the Brookings Institution’s YouTube channel
As part of Washington’s diplomatic push in the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Tonga, New Zealand and Australia next week, while US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is departing next week to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Regarding Taiwan, Kritenbrink said that the US is trying to make the point that maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait should be a matter of international concern, as it is central to global security and prosperity.
“Fifty percent of the world’s container traffic flows to the Taiwan Strait, and 90 percent of the world’s high-end chips are made in Taiwan,” he said.
“Taiwan is central to the global economy,” Kritenbrink said. “Maintaining peace and stability and preventing a crisis or conflict across the Taiwan Strait should be a matter of concern for all of our partners in the region and around the world.
He said there has been no change to the US’ “one China” policy.
He said the US is committed to maintaining peace and stability, so its message to Beijing would be “to not challenge that status quo, to cease the provocative and coercive actions they have taken across the Strait and aimed at Taiwan.”
Ratner said he can see that Taiwan is committed to its own defense, as it has made a political commitment in terms of military and reservist reforms, and a substantial financial commitment with major increases in its defense budget.
“I look at what they do and how they are responding to the type of coercion they are under as a significant and reassuring sign of their commitment to their own resilience and defense,” he said.
Asked about his meeting with Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng (謝峰) on Wednesday last week, Ratner said they “had a very good discussion,” but he refused to characterize the discussions.
“I will say what Secretary Austin has emphasized on a number of occasions, which is that the US continues to seek open lines of communication with the PLA,” he said, referring to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
“We think this is important for stability in peace time and during potential crises, and it is unfortunate that the PLA has not responded to that outstretched hand,” Ratner said.
“We are going to continue to encourage open lines of communication without preconditions,” he added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat