Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday said he believes that the US would defend Taiwan against Chinese military aggression, as the Ministry of National Defense confirmed that an Australian naval ship passed through the Taiwan Strait.
“We [Australia] take seriously what [US] President [Joe] Biden has said and he said it on four occasions that the United States of America would defend Taiwan,” Rudd, who currently serves as Australia’s ambassador to the US, told Sky News Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) “have been absolutely clear-cut” that ensuring the maintenance of strategic equilibrium across the Taiwan Strait and broader East Asia is “good for Australia’s interests,” as well as the interests of the US and its allies, he said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
How the allies respond to issues in the Taiwan Strait would depend on future scenarios, such as which party initiates moves to change the “status quo,” he said.
The preferred scenario is that conflicts could be solved through “collective integrated deterrence,” which means that Beijing would determine that taking military actions against Taiwan would be too risky, he said.
“Deterrence has been effective,” he said, adding that it is the collective goal pursued by the governments of Australia, Japan, the US and others.
If deterrence fails, there are many other possible scenarios that could unfold — such as blockades, invasions or near invasions — which would be “very difficult to effectively war-game,” he said.
Asked if Australia would “automatically be part of that defense of Taiwan” due to its alliance with the US, Rudd said that the country refrains from speculating about hypothetical scenarios.
Separately, the Ministry of Defense yesterday said it had a full grasp of the situation regarding an Australian warship that had sailed through the Taiwan Strait from Thursday until early yesterday.
The ship sailed through the Strait in a southerly direction, during which the military fully monitored movements in the surrounding sea and airspace, and detected no abnormalities, the ministry said.
An Australian official confirmed that the vessel, HMAS Toowoomba, transited international waters in the Taiwan Strait as part of its regional deployment, Reuters reported.
In addition, six Chinese military aircraft were detected near the Taiwan Strait, including one flying over Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone, from 6am on Thursday to 6am yesterday, the ministry said.
The military was closely monitoring and handling the situation with military aircraft, ships and shore-based missile systems, it said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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