US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack.
Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they do not do it.”
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Trump said he has talked with Xi since his election and communicated with him as recently as three days before the interview.
Asked if he told Xi that China must not invade Taiwan in the most recent exchange, Trump said: “We did not talk about that.”
“I have a very good relationship [with Xi] and I hope he does not do it,” he added.
Separately, Japanese media reported that Washington is to reconstitute the US forces in Japan as a joint force headquarters under the Indo-Pacific Command.
The move would enable the US to use the planned headquarters to facilitate coordination between the Indo-Pacific Command and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), Kyodo News said.
The two nations would create a task force to oversee the headquarters’ establishment, it said.
The JSDF are creating a Joint Operations Command, which is expected to be operational before the end of this year, to interface with the proposed US headquarters, it said.
The reorganization of the two nations’ forces was among the subjects discussed in the US-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in July, Kyodo News said.
Lieutenant General Stephen Jost, commander of US Forces in Japan, and Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani discussed the matter at their intelligence-sharing meeting in October, it said.
The reflagging was part of US lawmaker’s addendum to the US$895.2 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 proposed by the US Department of Defense, it said.
The conditions, which included the conduct of specific joint activities between the US and Japanese forces, must be implemented within 180 days of the bill’s expected passage by the US Congress, it said.
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS