US President Joe Biden on Saturday affirmed his willingness to protect the US’ allies and reiterated that peace in the Taiwan Strait should be upheld, as Washington again called on Beijing to restrain itself after it conducted two-day military drills around Taiwan.
“I’ve always been willing to use force when required to protect our nation, our allies, our core interests. When anyone targets American troops, we will deliver justice to them,” Biden said in a speech to cadets graduating from the US Military Academy in West Point, New York.
He touted US security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, including the AUKUS security pact with Australia and the UK, trilateral cooperation with Japan and South Korea, and recent engagement with Japan and the Philippines.
Photo: Reuters
The US also elevated the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Australia, India and Japan to support a “free, open, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Biden said.
“We’re standing up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Thanks to US military forces, the country is able to defend its values “by standing up to tyrants,” he said.
“Anyone who thinks they can threaten us, think again,” he added.
On the same day as Biden’s address, the US Department of State issued a statement to “strongly urge Beijing to act with restraint” after its drills around Taiwan.
After President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on Monday, Beijing said his speech was an attempt to promote Taiwanese independence, in particular his statement that Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are not subordinate to one another.
On Thursday and Friday, China conducted a large-scale military exercise, codenamed “Joint Sword-2024A,” around Taiwan, sparking concern and condemnation among the international community.
The US was “deeply concerned” about the military drills in the Strait and around Taiwan, US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“We are monitoring PRC activities closely and coordinating with allies and partners regarding our shared concerns,” Miller said.
Beijing is “using a normal, routine, and democratic transition as an excuse for military provocations,” he said, adding that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait “is critical for regional and global security and prosperity.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement yesterday thanked Biden and the US government for supporting Taiwan.
At a time when democracies around the globe are facing challenges, like-minded partners have unanimously demanded that China exercise restraint, stop coercing Taiwan and cease any actions that undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said.
The international community would not approve of Beijing’s attempts to blatantly interfere with Taipei’s democratic process, and would consider them provocative actions that aim to disrupt the “status quo,” it said.
The ministry called on China to resume exchanges and dialogue with Taiwan based on the principles of equality and dignity, and to jointly safeguard peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Meanwhile, a group of US representatives, led by Republican Michael McCaul, who chairs the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, yesterday arrived in Taipei.
The delegation includes Republicans Young Kim, Joe Wilson and Andy Barr, and Democrats Jimmy Panetta and Chrissy Houlahan, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement.
Their four-day visit to Taiwan is part of a trip to the wider Indo-Pacific region, the AIT said.
The six representatives would be the first group of serving US officials to meet with Lai after his inauguration and China’s two-day drills.
“I think it’s very important that we show our strong support for Taiwan. I think it is a deterrent,” McCaul told NBC News before arriving in Taiwan.
Additional reporting by CNA
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
RSS