The White House hopes that Taiwan can have free, fair and transparent elections, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said in an interview published on Thursday.
Kirby was asked by Voice of America in an interview about alleged Chinese interference in the run-up to Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on Saturday next week.
He said he could not confirm individual reports of interference, but the White House has been clear in its respect for Taiwan’s democratic institutions.
Photo: AP
“We respect the will of the people of Taiwan to make these sorts of decisions in terms of their own governance,” he said. “And we don’t want any other actor, be it a nation state or otherwise, to interfere in this election.”
Kirby also declined to speculate on whether the US would recognize an election result if it were confident there was Chinese interference, saying it would just monitor the situation “as closely as we can.”
Regarding Chinese military activity around Taiwan this year, including 10 balloons spotted crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Kirby said it is important that Taiwanese can go to the polls “with a feeling of safety and security and comfort in the knowledge that their vote matters.”
“And that’s really what we’re focused on. That’s what we want to see happen,” he said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of National Defense said it detected eight Chinese People’s Liberation Army aircraft and four navy vessels operating near Taiwan in the 24 hours ending at 6am yesterday.
Two of the aircraft, a Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine transport aircraft and a reconnaissance variant of the same plane, entered the nation’s southwest air defense identification zone, the ministry said.
The armed forces monitored the situation and tasked appropriate forces to respond, it said.
One Chinese balloon was also spotted drifting to the north of Taiwan proper in the period, the ministry said, making it the 10th to be detected this year.
It crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait 88 nautical miles (163km) northwest of Hsinchu at an altitude of about 7,315m, the ministry said.
It headed northeast before disappearing at 9:43am on Thursday, it added.
Asked about the issue of election interference on the campaign trail in Miaoli County yesterday, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) told reporters that national security officials have a “good grasp” of the situation, and prosecutors are rigorously investigating based on facts and evidence.
The government has learned China’s patterns of interference, Chen said, calling on Taiwanese to be vigilant against inadvertently breaking the law.
Additional reporting by Peng Chien-li
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