The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart.
The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call.
“We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as the status quo of the Taiwan Strait,” the MOFA said.
Photo: AFP
Building on the solid US-Taiwan friendship, Taiwan looks forward to strengthening cooperation with the administration of US President Donald Trump, continuing to demonstrate Taiwan’s self-defense determination, and enhancing its defensive capabilities and resilience through US arms sales, military reform and reinforcing whole-of-society resilience, it said.
Taiwan also looks forward to deepening its security and economic and trade partnership with the US, and together promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific region, it said.
Rubio on Friday clashed with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) over Taiwan.
Rubio, a longtime China hawk, spoke with Wang for the first time by telephone at the end of his first week in office, which he began by forming a united front with US partners in the region.
In the telephone call, Rubio told Wang that the second Trump administration would pursue a relationship with China “that advances US interests and puts the American people first,” US Department of State spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“The secretary also stressed the United States’ commitment to our allies in the region and serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan and in the South China Sea,” she said.
Wang in turn cautioned Rubio over Taiwan.
“We will never allow Taiwan to be separated from China,” Wang told Rubio, adding that Washington “must not betray its promise” to recognize only “one China,” a readout by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Wang voiced hope to Rubio that the former US senator would “play a constructive role for the future of the Chinese and American people, and for world peace and stability,” it said.
In their call, Wang told Rubio that the world’s top two economies should work to find “the right way to get along in the new era” — presumably referring to Trump’s return to the US presidency.
While Beijing had “no intention of surpassing or replacing anyone,” it maintained its “legitimate right to development,” he said.
In his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Rubio vowed to ramp up support for Taiwan to achieve an “equilibrium” that would discourage China from an invasion.
Rubio suggested at the hearing that China could invade Taiwan by the end of the decade unless the US makes clear that “the costs of intervening in Taiwan are too high.”
Rubio has cast China as the top threat to the US and has accused the Asian power — whose economy has skyrocketed in the past few decades — of “cheating” its way toward superpower status.
Rubio also spoke by telephone with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son. Rubio discussed with Bui, who is also minister of foreign affairs, China’s “aggressive behavior in the South China Sea,” the US State Department said.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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