The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed regret over the cancelation of a planned visit to Taiwan next month by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler, but added that cooperation on environmental initiatives would continue.
“Due to pressing domestic priorities at home, Administrator Wheeler’s visit to Taiwan has been postponed,” EPA spokesman James Hewitt said on Tuesday by e-mail.
Wheeler’s trip was originally planned following several high-level visits by US officials to Taiwan in the past few months, as well as stepped-up arms sales.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan regretted the cancelation, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a text message yesterday, adding that Taipei would continue to promote future Cabinet-level visits and collaboration on environmental issues with the incoming administration of US president-elect Joe Biden.
In Washington, Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) on Tuesday also expressed regret over the cancelation of the trip, but added that Taiwan and the US would continue their cooperation on environmental initiatives.
Wheeler and his delegation had planned to visit Taiwan for three days to discuss a wide range of topics, such as ocean trash, air quality and child health, media reports said.
The visit had drawn scrutiny in the US for its potentially high price tag, with a charter flight planned to transport Wheeler and other EPA staff to Taiwan because of COVID-19 concerns.
A separate trip by Wheeler to Latin American countries, including possibly Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, is still expected just ahead of Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Hewitt said the EPA would be asking the agency’s inspector general to probe the disclosure of details surrounding Wheeler’s Taiwan travel plans, after a New York Times report on the cost concerns.
“It is disturbing that a government official would leak deliberative schedules to the New York Times that could jeopardize both international diplomacy and personal security,” Hewitt said.
Two high-level US officials have visited Taiwan in recent months.
In August, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar became the highest-ranking US official to travel to Taiwan since the US broke off ties with Taipei in 1979.
US Undersecretary of State Keith Krach visited Taiwan a month later.
Both visits spurred angry reactions from Beijing, with Taiwan a focal point for spiraling tensions between the US and China.
There was speculation that Wheeler canceled his trip due to an unannounced visit by US Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, director of intelligence of the US Indo-Pacific Command, to Taipei on Sunday.
However, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) disputed the speculation on the sidelines of a legislative meeting, saying the two matters were unrelated.
Studeman arrived at Taipei International Airport on a chartered plane for a three-day visit.
The plane departed from the same airport at about 7:10pm on Tuesday, according to photographs taken by local media.
The ministry did not confirm or comment on Studeman’s visit.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and