American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chair Laura Rosenberger yesterday said during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that she hoped to see the US and Taiwan maintain the “rock-solid” relations they currently enjoy.
Rosenberger, who arrived on Sunday and is scheduled to leave on Saturday, would “demonstrate the United States’ strong US commitment to Taiwan and advance the growing US-Taiwan partnership,” the AIT said in a statement on Sunday.
Congratulating Taiwanese on conducting free and fair elections in January, Rosenberger said that elections in Taiwan have always been a model for the Indo-Pacific region and the world.
Photo: CNA
After the elections, Taiwan received many congratulatory messages from around the world — a recognition of the enduring strength of Taiwan’s democracy, she said.
Taiwan maintained a close partnership with the US in economics, security and people-to-people exchanges during Tsai’s tenure over the past eight years, Rosenberger said.
Noticeable recent achievements in the relationship include a memorandum of understanding on international development cooperation signed in February, as well as the fourth High-Level Dialogue on the US-Taiwan Education Initiative and the fourth US-Taiwan Consultations on Democratic Governance in the Indo-Pacific Region that were held last month, she said.
Photo: CNA
The economic ties between Taipei and Washington are always strong and continue to deepen, Rosenberger said, citing US President Joe Biden’s Trade Policy Agenda released last month, which highlights the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade as one of the economic visions the US government is working on.
She also said that efforts to provide double taxation relief to Taiwanese businesses and workers in the US are ongoing.
Taiwan is a beacon of democracy in the region, boasting a vibrant society, a thriving economy and world-leading technologies, Rosenberger said.
The US sees Taiwan as a crucial partner, she said, adding that safeguarding peace and stability is a goal shared by Taiwan and the US.
Washington has a “rock-solid, principled and bipartisan” commitment to Taiwan and hopes the latter will endeavor to maintain that solid relationship, she said.
Tsai thanked Rosenberger for visiting Taiwan five times since taking office in March last year, saying it “demonstrated her enthusiasm for deepening Taiwan-US relations.”
The partnership between Taiwan and the US continues to grow ahead of the 45th anniversary of the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act on April 10, 1979, Tsai said.
Taiwan would continue to cooperate with the US and other democracies to ensure regional stability and promote global prosperity, she added.
Later yesterday, during a meeting with Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the president-elect, Rosenberger expressed confidence that Taiwan and the US would grow closer after he takes office.
Lai thanked Rosenberger for leading a delegation to Taiwan shortly after the elections to offer their congratulations and invited her to attend his inauguration on May 20.
During her trip this week, Rosenberger is also to meet with academics and politicians from across party lines to explore the possibility of collaborating on “regional security, mutually beneficial trade and investment, and people-to-people educational and cultural ties,” the AIT said.
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.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so