US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said that the US will “fulfill [its] commitments” to Taiwan, amid rising calls for Washington to explicitly commit to defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
Pompeo’s remarks came after the Financial Times earlier this week published a video, titled “Will China and the US go to war over Taiwan?” which mentions a “growing debate” in the US over whether it was time to end the “strategic ambiguity” on the defense of Taiwan.
Asked about the issue by conservative political commentator Hugh Hewitt on Friday, Pompeo said that the administration of US President Donald Trump has been “relentless” in delivering on its commitments to Taiwan, but stopped short of clarifying the US position.
“There’s the Taiwan Relations Act, there’s a set of understandings that have been in place for quite some time, and we have made sure to fulfill those commitments,” Pompeo said, further citing weapons sales and the US military’s maintenance of freedom of navigation around Taiwan as examples.
“We recognize that this is a point of conflict with the Chinese Communist Party. We don’t want that. We want peace. But we are going to make sure we live up to all the obligations we have to Taiwan,” he added.
Pompeo also refused to elaborate on the topic on Tuesday during an interview with Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review.
Asked if the US is prepared to respond if China attacks Taiwan, Pompeo said that the US is doing everything it can to reduce tensions in the region, but also recognizes that “appeasement is not the answer.”
The questions came as several commentators have in the past few months spoken out in favor of making a clear commitment to Taiwan’s defense, which they argue would reduce uncertainties that could potentially lead to war.
In an article in the Foreign Affairs magazine, veteran US diplomat Richard Haass last month said that the decades-old policy of strategic ambiguity has run its course and the US must explicitly state that it will respond to any use of force by China against Taiwan.
At a foreign policy forum hosted by the Hudson Institute think tank on Wednesday, US Senator Tom Cotton also called for an “explicit and unambiguous” commitment to defend Taiwan.
If the US makes a clear commitment to uphold the territorial integrity of Taiwan, China would have no choice but to show restraint, Cotton said.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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