The US Department of State on Wednesday reaffirmed its “rock-solid” commitment to Taiwan and said that Washington maintains the ability to resist any actions that would threaten Taiwan’s security, as China steps up its military pressure.
The remarks by State Department spokesman Ned Price came as a Chinese aircraft carrier group conducted drills in waters off Taiwan and as 15 Chinese planes entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone that day, in the fifth straight day of such incursions.
Asked at a press briefing about Beijing’s apparent ratcheting up of pressure on Taipei, Price reaffirmed that the US’ commitment to Taiwan remains “rock solid.”
Photo: Reuters
Washington has watched with great concern China’s ongoing efforts to intimidate countries in the region, including Taiwan, he said.
In support of longstanding US policy, including the Taiwan Relations Act, the US “maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social and economic system of the people on Taiwan,” he said.
On the same day, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense was asked if the transit of a US naval vessel through the Taiwan Strait was related to the recent uptick in tension.
The USS John S. McCain, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, conducted “a routine Taiwan Strait transit April 7 through international waters in accordance with international law,” a press statement by the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said.
However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the US does not conduct freedom of navigation exercises around the world in response to specific events or actions, but rather to demonstrate its commitment to the freedom of all nations to “sail, operate and fly in accordance with international law.”
Asked to comment on Price’s remarks, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) yesterday questioned who is really using intimidation tactics in the Taiwan Strait, as well as other places around the world.
US vessels have been flexing their muscles in the Taiwan Strait, sending wrong signals to pro-Taiwan independence forces and posing a threat to the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, he said at a news briefing, while highlighting US’ military action in the Middle East over the past few decades.
China has never meant to intimidate anyone, nor will it fear anybody’s intimidation, he said, urging the US to abide by the “one China” principle and the three Sino-US joint communiques.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but